


Twenty Kisses

by AngelMoonGirl



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Canon Compliant, Crystal Tokyo Era, Death, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Really the whole gamut, Romance, Sexy Times, Silver Millennium Era, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-14 03:58:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 22,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14762166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelMoonGirl/pseuds/AngelMoonGirl
Summary: From the whimsical scheme of a kissing booth to the heart-wrenching pain of losing a child, this series of drabbles and one shots will encompass it all. Instances of intimacy between Usagi and Mamoru in every incarnation, treading both canon and AU worlds.(Written 2010-2018. COMPLETE!)





	1. Bunny Among Wolves

Setting: _First season_  
Genre: _AU_

* * *

"Usagi, Tuxedo Kamen would never in his right mind want to kiss  _you_!" Mamoru heard Hino Rei proclaim loudly from across the cafe, choking on coffee in his surprise. Keen ears pricking up, the college student was severely dismayed when Kino Makoto shushed her priestess friend into quiescence. Now unequivocally interested ( _Odango Atama wants to kiss my alter-ego!? Now this I have to hear..._ ), Mamoru slipped away from the counter and Motoki's companionship. Aforementioned blonde hissed a warning his way, probably something to do with steering clear of his surrogate little sister, but Mamoru couldn't resist. The thought that Usagi would want to pucker up with him, even if it was in his superhero form, sent a strange batch of butterflies aflutter in Mamoru's midsection. He briefly wondered just what Tuxedo Kamen's draw was for Usagi, a mere civilian who knew next to nothing about his other identity, before coming up behind said fourteen-year-old.

"Of course he would. We're meant to be! My first kiss has to be reserved for someone special; for that one true love destiny has paired me with... and only Tuxedo Kamen fills that role!"

"Odango Atama, just what makes you think Tuxedo Kamen is your soulmate?" Mamoru sneered, seeming to appear out of thin air on Usagi's right. The teen yelped and blushed a fierce shade of red.

"You creep! Stop doing that!"

"What?"

"Popping out of nowhere! Listening in on our  _private_ conversations!  _Existing_! Because the sole purpose of your life is surely to aggravate me..."

"Don't worry, the feeling is mutual," Mamoru quipped, rolling his eyes. "Now answer my question. I'm intrigued."

"Hmpf! It's none of your business, Chiba Mamoru!" Usagi huffed, turning up her nose at his sardonic countenance. Mamoru allowed himself a quiet but humorous smile at her expense, inwardly guffawing at the irony of her exclamation.  _None of my business? Oh, Odango, if only you knew..._ "And stop smirking at me! I know that look, and I don't like it."

"What look?" Mamoru frowned.

" _That_ one! On your face, right now! The one that's mocking me for wanting to save my first kiss for Tuxedo Kamen! Well you don't know anything about me, Chiba Mamoru! I'm so much closer to fulfilling my dream than you are to getting a new jacket that's not sickly green!" Usagi shouted, standing up in her fanaticism and smacking the tabletop with her palms. She shoved her face forward until it was only inches from his own. Mamoru, stunned at Usagi's unexpected outburst, almost missed the sudden glares of warning from the other girls. However, so entranced was he by the elegant contours of Odango's angry visage that the man barely stopped to ponder their reaction. Nor had it escaped his notice that Usagi's lips- the subject of their current debate- were teasing him mercilessly by their propinquity. It would only take one stumble to connect his with hers... one tiny, inconsequential slip-

"Usagi-chan," Mizuno Ami, always the logical one of the group, pleaded. She tugged on her friend's sleeve imploringly. "Sit down. The patrons are starting to stare."

Usagi ignored her. "You're always misjudging me, and I hate it! You probably think I'm not worthy of any man's kiss, too! But you know what? I'm going to prove. you. wrong!"

Mamoru wanted to protest at the direction their feud was taking, but he couldn't seem to stop gaping at Usagi's lips. Idiot. He tried not to sigh as Usagi pulled back, straightening up and calling to the cafe at large,

"TOMORROW AFTERNOON, I, TSUKINO USAGI, WILL BE HOLDING A KISSING BOOTH! GET A CHEAP THRILL FOR ONLY TEN YEN! Raven-haired jerks-" Here the blonde threw Mamoru a withering glare- "are not invited!"

"But Usagi, your dream-" Makoto started to argue.

"I don't care what I said earlier," Usagi snapped, blue eyes like crackling fire in her fury. She bestowed an ugly look on Mamoru, shoving her petite body past him to march out the door. "Plenty of guys will want to kiss me, just you wait!"

Mamoru stared at her retreating back, mind reeling in shock. Was Usagi really going to hold a kissing booth? Over  _him_? And... why did it matter so much whether she lost her first kiss to some random stranger off the street or not? Shaking his head of the boggling ruminations, Mamoru wandered out the door in the waspish Odango's wake, listening to the warble of her friends fade.

"No raven-haired jerks? Aw, shucks, guess I'm not welcome either. And I was so eagerly anticipating a smooch with Usagi."

"Don't tease, Rei-chan! This all started because of your stupid remark."

"Hey, it's Usagi's life. If she wants to throw away her first kiss over another one of her hair-brained ideas and ends up regretting it later, then that's her fault for not listening to reason."

"Ugh, you are heartless, Rei-chan. Right... but heartless."

oOo

 _He did not care_.

Usagi's odango shone gold under the hot afternoon sun as she set up her booth, scrawling "Kisses for Ten Yen" on a poster board. It was probably lucky her parents were not home- even though Mama might understand, Papa would have her head for this.  _Selling your body for cash_ , he would sigh with utmost disappointment.  _Disgraceful_. But she had to show Mamoru she was desirable.  _Had_ to.

 _He did not care_.

Usagi tapped her foot impatiently, arms crossed as she waited for customers to arrive. Surely someone had overheard her announcement at Fruit Parlor Crown yesterday...

 _He did not care_. Then again, why was he perched atop a tree outside Odango's house in full Tuxedo Kamen garb, braving all manner of birds and cricks to make sure Usagi's first kiss was not stolen by some sick depraved pervert? He was only doing this to protect an innocent damsel. Really. It was in his job description!

A gaggle of acne-ridden teenage boys from down the street approached, wolf-whistling and pointing at Usagi's sign with a predatory, yet excited gleam in their eyes. Mamoru could see the bills in their hand even from this distance. Some strange and foreign creature gnawed at the pit of his stomach when Usagi smiled encouragingly their way. Was it jealousy? Hate? Anger? Or... something deeper; more primal?

 _He did not care_. Nope, nope, nope. Not one iota. Not one little smidgen. He. did. not. care. He was only here to ensure Usagi's well-being as she proceeded with this asinine kissing booth scheme.

The throng of males was now mere feet from Usagi.

"Hey, baby!" a particularly masculine one called appreciatively, flexing his broad arm muscles in an attempt to show off. "You look lonely over here, all by your cute little self!"

_He did not care._

"Wanna pucker up with me first?"

 _He did not_... aw, hell, he did, didn't he? Mamoru leapt nimbly from the tree.

"No,  _I_ brought extra money! She wants to kiss  _me_ first!"

"She's taken," Mamoru said in a loud, rather frightening baritone from behind the blonde. Usagi gasped as the overly testosterone-fueled teenagers made a hasty retreat, murmuring amongst themselves.

"T-T-Tuxedo Kamen-sama?" she whispered in awe. "You... I... how...?"

"Word spreads fast around here. A little Bunny like yourself shouldn't hop willingly into a pack of wolves- it's dangerous," the superhero warned smoothly.

"I only wanted to prove my worth," Usagi, blushing profusely, admitted in a tiny voice. She averted her eyes, feigning great fascination with a blade of grass next to her foot.

"Through means of a kiss? There are so many other, and more telling, ways."

"I know. But sometimes I wonder if he's right," Usagi continued dejectedly, and Mamoru did not have to ask to whom she was referring. "Sometimes I wonder if I... if I will ever see my... my dreams come true. Besides, I'm nobody special. Who would ever want to kiss me?"

Usagi started when soft, fabric-laden fingers caught her chin and tilted her countenance heavenward. Suddenly, a pair of warm gentle lips captured her own. Breathless, she allowed the kiss to deepen as brilliant fireworks exploded in her mind. Was this what all the mangas and movies she'd devoured as a child always talked about? When Tuxedo Kamen finally released his light grip, Usagi dazedly floated back down to earth. Her chest was fluttering and hands trembling, but the fourteen-year-old steadied her gaze to smile graciously at her ebony-clad hero as he crooned,

"Perhaps someone who wishes to see dreams come true."

Usagi blinked in surprise, wondering if he knew the full implications of what had just occurred, but in that bat of an eye Tuxedo Kamen had disappeared.

A fresh rose lay at her feet.

* * *

 Next chapter: _"Empty"_


	2. Empty

Setting: _Future, pre-Crystal Tokyo_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

Mamoru grabbed at the door frame, wishing futilely that he could pull strength from its solidarity; perhaps find a way to ensconce it in his hollow, shattered heart. The woman before him watched his silent struggle with equal pain and frangibility in her violet eyes. She wrung her fingers desperately, wanting to provide consolation but unsure of the right words. The raven-haired priestess decided to settle with a heavy and heartfelt,

"I'm so sorry, Mamoru-san."

Mamoru just grunted, averting his gaze to stare forlornly at the closed alabaster door. His midnight depths were hazy and dull. "Did you contact the others?"

"They're on their way."

Uncomfortable, emotionally-charged quiescence reigned once more. It was not broken for a full minute until Mamoru whispered, "They say she's awake. I just... I can't believe this happened; one minute we're all having dinner, the next... God, it was so fast! And we were so  _sure_... but then..."

"There's still hope," Rei countered fiercely, grabbing at her old friend's quivering hand. She squeezed tightly, pleading, "I know you're afraid to face her; to see the agony in her eyes, but Usagi  _needs_ you. Her aura is pulsating with hurt beyond this wooden frame. She craves your comfort; your steady arms... she wants someone to tell her that it wasn't her fault, and that these things happen. Please, go to her. Share your sorrows together. You do nothing standing out here, trying to hide your tears as if they are a weakness."

Mamoru inhaled raggedly, squeezing Rei's hand back. He nodded. "You're right."

"Aren't I always?" Rei chuckled, supplying the man with a watery but sad smile. She let go of his appendage, turning away to choke out, "And tell Usagi she's welcome any time at the shrine if she wants to talk. Sometimes girls just want to have heart-to-hearts in situations like these, y-you know?"

"I will," Mamoru whispered, before disappearing into his wife's hospital room. The sight he was greeted with wrenched the prince's heart terribly.

Usagi sat listlessly on her bed, cerulean eyes dim and unfocused. One hand stroked gently at her stomach, tender caress a knife that mocked memories of fruitless nights dreaming; dreaming about the future and a child who would never be. Her other kneaded the starched white covers like an unconscious tick, gathering up the fabric tightly before letting it fall, limp, back to the mattress. Mamoru realized as he watched Usagi's fingers clench and unclench that the action disguised great distress- he could tell, after years spent in the blonde's presence, that Usagi's composure was only held by a tether. One little push was all it was going to take to send her tumbling over the edge.

Apparently, it was the click of the door shutting that did it. Usagi's control came crumbling down as she saw him enter, and her emotions finally rent loose.

"Mamo-chan," the petite Moon Princess sobbed, and with that one word Mamoru was instantly by her side, holding his wife close as she cried brokenly. Usagi latched onto his embrace like a starving child to food; a mewling infant to its mother. "Mamo-chan, they couldn't save him; h-he's gone..."

"I know," the ebony-haired man murmured, throat catching as he pet Usagi's golden locks back. "I know, love. But we still have hope. We'll have a beautiful daughter someday; we'll have the family we've been dreaming of for so long. We just have to be patient, alright?"

"Downy b-black hair, just like yours... and m-my eyes. H-he was so small; only seven months... so small..." the blonde murmured, clutching at her flat abdomen once more, as if the healing touch could bring her baby back to life. The Silver Crystal had always obeyed her every whim; every desire. It existed to protect, so why couldn't it protect when Usagi most needed it to? Why couldn't it have been spurred into action by love, when Usagi's love had been so strong; so bright? Her shimmering blue depths connected with Mamoru's darker hue as he laid a hand over hers. "I know we'll have a baby one day, but Mamo-chan, he was a part of me for so long... I  _loved_  him, and now I just feel... I just feel so  _empty_."

The tears began streaming once more down Usagi's cheeks, and Mamoru found he could hold his own at bay no longer. He too began sobbing, mourning for their lost child-  _my_ _son_ \- as the man laid anguished kisses against the soft stomach he'd only yesterday been whispering declarations of adulation and endless devotion to. A stomach once full with the burgeoning seed of his and Usagi's union, now empty in the still wake of tragedy.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Rapturous Intoxication"_

 


	3. Rapturous Intoxication

Setting: _Post-Stars_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

 Usagi shivered deliciously as Mamoru's hands roved over her bare skin, branding a fiery pattern with his caress.

She arched under his ministrations, throat releasing a husky moan almost of its own volition.

Mamoru responded in kind, spurred by her quiet noises of approval as he bent down to suckle and nip at her pleasure point.

Lost in the foreign sensations ravaging her system, Usagi grabbed at Mamoru's silky black locks and gasped, eyes rolling into the back of her head.

It was pure feeling; a drowning intoxication.

His kisses were like that of a practiced painter, strokes and brushes on a burning canvas, and he teased her mercilessly until the very moment her soul ripped free...

Soaring, sailing, mindlessly and elatedly heavenward.

The rapture.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Toasting Forever"_


	4. Toasting Forever

Setting: _Crystal Tokyo_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

He pulled apart from their mind-blowing kiss just as fireworks began to resound in the sky, spurred by the last tolling of the midnight hour.

"Happy New Year, darling."

Neo-Queen Serenity opened her eyes to greet her husband Endymion's beaming visage, still reveling in the tingling sensation left on her lips. He meanwhile smirked at the dazed expression on her face- a feat that seemed to proceed every kiss' wake- while reaching down to take a swig from his wine glass. Serenity's fingers shot out nimbly to stop his descent.

"Wait- I want to make one more toast."

" _Again_? Serenity, haven't we exhausted the list yet? We've already voiced our well-wishes for Usa's upcoming coronation, asked fate for a peaceful and fruitful marriage between her and Helios, hoped for a prosperous year for Crystal Tokyo-"

"Silly, we haven't even taken the time to toast to us and  _our_ future," Serenity chided playfully. Endymion cocked a rather sardonic brow and drawled,

"Our future? What, shall we raise a glass to senility? Wrinkles? Gray hair?" He pointed to a proliferate patch that seemed to be breeding monthly on Serenity's mane of gold. Aforementioned Queen chuckled, not daunted in the slightest.

"Oh Endymion. So cynical, even after all these years! I propose a toast... to forever." She extended her glass, waiting, as if precognizantly aware that her husband would follow suit.

"To forever, huh?" Endymion mulled, eying the dainty cup thoughtfully. He glanced down, swirling the dregs of his own wine. Then resurfaced with an indulgent grin. "I rather like the sound of that."

He lifted the glass to meet Serenity's.

"To an eternity spent forever in your arms, come what may."

The wine glasses made a tinkling  _clink!_  as they connected, then the pair of Royals drank deeply.

* * *

 Next Chapter: _"Every Step"_


	5. Every Step

Setting: _Future, pre-Crystal Tokyo_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

He found her sobbing into the toilet bowl, arms wrapped around the porcelain so tightly it acted as a tether.

Without even bothering to dispose of the plate of eggs properly- he never liked that sink anyway- Mamoru collapsed onto his knees next to Usagi. One hand snaked out to wipe sweaty bangs from the blonde's forehead while the other caressed her back soothingly.

"Shh... shh... Usako, it's okay... Morning sickness again?"

"Yes," the woman uttered miserably, reflexively increasing her embrace with the pot as another bout of tears claimed her. Mamoru continued to administer soft massaging to the tremors wracking Usagi's frame.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" he asked desperately, for Usagi had suffered this form of nausea before, and never with such an intense reaction.

"I'm scared, Mamo-chan," Usagi moaned, glancing blearily at him through a cavalcade of hiccups. "I can't be a mother; what was I thinking? God, everything I've ever taken care of has  _died_... goldfish, hamsters... why is this any different?"

"You are  _not_ going to kill our baby, Usako," Mamoru told her sternly. "That's nonsense, and you know it."

"But what if something goes wrong? What if- what if I klutz out and... and  _hurt_  it? What if I eat something bad or... or... There's just so many things that could go wrong, and I'm scared!" Renewed sobs ravaged the expectant blonde's throat. She hid her face against the cold alabaster, ashamed and fearful and weak.

Mamoru released Usagi and instead said forcefully, "Please look at me, Usako."

Usagi complied, slowly and shakily removing her wet countenance from the toilet to face her husband. A strange sight they were, two adults on the floor of a tiny bathroom, one sniffling and covered in all manner of mucus while the other watched on sympathetically in his breakfast apron.

When Mamoru was sure he had the odangoed one's full attention, and her weepy sapphire eyes were locked with his deep, insistent indigo, he smiled. His hand grabbed hers and squeezed. "You're going to be a fine parent; we both are. We've had practice with children before, and this will be no different, other than the fact that this baby is truly  _ours_. Please don't worry anymore, Usako. Don't feel like you're alone. Even if you'll be the one carrying this baby for the next eight months, I'm going to do everything I can to help you both flourish. I'll be there every step of the way, Usako."

Usagi supplied Mamoru with a very watery beam. "Oh Mamo-chan!" she crooned happily, choking on emotion as she leaned in for a kiss. Her lips met skin and the woman opened her eyes, confused.

"Let's not be too hasty, love. First, I want you acquainted with mint toothpaste," Mamoru joked, removing his finger, and Usagi had to laugh as she swiped at her cheeks.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Phantom Princess I"_


	6. Phantom Princess I

Setting: _Second season (Episode 83)_  
Genre: _Canon_

* * *

The air was biting, surroundings shrouded in a pall of ice reminiscent of winter's embrace.

But it was not winter.

Two figures stood wrapped in each other's arms under the sky of eternal night, just under the shadow of Crystal Palace. The tallest- a man- had his ebony cloak tucked securely around the petite body of his female comrade. The girl was scantily dressed for the searingly cold weather, adorned in a gown of sheer white silk that gathered form-fitting at the waist and continued in an elegant trail all the way to the ground. The back of her fancy bodice sprouted fairy-like wings, in mimicry of a Queen trapped inside a quartz coffin only stories above them. She was beautiful; a princess in all respects of the title...

But not his princess.

No, this was Demande's princess. A phantom of the girl he truly loved; a mockery of the woman she was meant to be.

"Tuxedo Kamen-sama," Usagi sighed, with grateful inflection to her voice. Kamen knew she was relieved to be safe once more in his grasp, far away from the bewitching snares of that devilish prince. He tried to keep the memories of their most recent escape from his mind, for it made the raven-haired man sick to think of what could have occurred had he been only seconds too late.

The botched kiss.

The hungry look in Prince Demande's eyes.

The  _bed_.

Tuxedo Kamen could only imagine what perverted fantasies his Usako would have had to reenact for the pleasure of that deranged bastard.

"King Endymion said, that our time to be severely tested is yet to come," Kamen related, an edge of foreboding to his tone. What trials were yet to plague them? Hadn't Usagi's kidnapping been horror enough? Why could they never have  _peace_?

Usagi looked down and then up, blinking rather bashfully. With the earnest conviction of only an angel, she reassured, "No matter what happens, we will..."

Words failed, but Kamen knew immediately what his future wife meant. After all, it was a sentiment they lived by. Overcome with emotion, he delved down to capture Usagi's frozen lips, promising inwardly to never let that starved prince or any other man touch her again.

She was  _his_ , now and forever.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Phantom Princess II"_


	7. Phantom Princess II

Setting: _Second season_  
Genre: _AU_

* * *

A rich myriad of colors danced over Tokyo, twilight sneaking up on a band of Sailor Senshi as they watched the sunset wane. Four teenagers stood apart from a couple mired in mutual sorrow, mourning the loss of a daughter they had only just discovered. The silence over the group was haunting, for it had only moments earlier been filled with the mocking laughter of a child-turned-woman, as she lambasting the world and her previous life for all its insults and injustices. No one was quite sure how long they stayed like that, brooding amidst the remnants of a battleground, but the moon was on its ascent when Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen finally turned to face their patient comrades.

"We'll set her free," Sailor Moon whispered fiercely, grabbing at Kamen's hand and squeezing. "No matter what it takes, we'll set Chibi-Usa free."

Her Senshi nodded with just as much grief, just as much passion, but sighs escaped many a lip.

"It's too late to do anything now. We can't be too hasty; we all need to rest," Sailor Mercury intoned grimly. The others had to agree; the return trip from Crystal Tokyo and their subsequent altercation with Black Lady had culminated in a bout of fatigue so strong, most of them wished to succumb to it here and now.

"I'll see if Mama will have us over tomorrow," Sailor Moon spoke up quietly, still clutching Tuxedo Kamen's fingers for what looked like dear life. The aforementioned man was observing her with concern out of the corner of his eye as he listened, catching her already shaky grip on composure falter almost imperceptibly at the word 'Mama'. He wondered if he was the only one to notice this stumble and interpret it correctly.

"And I'll check the Sacred Fire for anything that may be of use," Mars added fervently. She shifted back into her civilian form, flicking stubborn raven locks over her shoulder with a fidgety hand. The others followed suit in a haze of planetary hues, but all faces whipped to Usagi as she gasped loudly.

"Oh no," the odangoed blonde moaned, wrapping her arms around her stomach as she curled protectively in on herself. "Oh no, oh no... I forgot..."

"What on earth?" Makoto murmured, unable to pull her stare elsewhere even as she sensed her leader's discomfort. Minako seemed to be having the same problem as she gaped, mouth ajar. The query that was burning in all of their minds tumbled from the other blonde's mouth before she could think the words through.

"Why are you... wearing that Neo-Queen Serenity imitation gown?"

Mamoru's eyes hardened at the mention of Usagi's scant white dress, but he reached over to pull the quietly sobbing princess into his arms. "Demande," he growled, and the name was sufficient explanation enough. Ami choked and Rei's obsidian orbs began blazing with icy anger.

"He didn't... violate her, did he? Because God help me, if he so much as laid  _one_ perverted finger anywhere on her body, I swear I'll-"

"He tried to kiss me," Usagi interrupted, muffled by the fabric of Mamoru's jacket. She turned her head to gaze pleadingly, tearfully, at Rei. "That's all. He didn't even get the chance to finish it either, thanks to Mamo-chan. I'm... I'm fine."

"You're going to defend that bastard?" Mamoru snarled, but his menacing tone reflected a rather more internally directed fury. "I'm pretty sure his intentions were clear, Usako. He locked you in a room with a bed; kissing was the most nominal of his goals. If only I'd acted faster when he first kidnapped you-"

"Mamo-chan, you did try!" Usagi cried earnestly. "You did, but he was too powerful, for  _all_ of us! I couldn't even use the Silver Crystal in his presence; I lost free will. Demande... he reduced me to a toy, Mamo-chan! I was... I was his toy..."

Mamoru tugged Usagi back to his chest as she began weeping again, eyes begging the girls for some privacy. The four exchanged emotion-laden looks, full of sympathy and infuriation at what their princess had been forced to endure. The promise of vengeance burgeoned in every visage as they nodded, in unison, to Mamoru. He smiled half-heartedly at their devotion as the quartet trudged off into the night, coalescing in whispers that were carried away into the breeze.

He could only imagine the horror Prince Demande had incurred upon himself by earning the wrath of those four warriors. He had messed with the wrong Moon Princess, that was for sure. Heaven help the man when the Sailor Senshi got their hands on him, because Mamoru knew he sure as hell wasn't going to. No, he'd be fighting for first punch!

"I don't want to be alone tonight, Mamo-chan," Usagi sniffed, peeking one glistening cerulean eye up at his chary countenance. "The minute I lie down, I'm going to see his face. I'm going to feel his hands on me, yanking my chin, p-pulling me to his lips. Please, Mamo-chan, not tonight... Please... I- I can't-"

Mamoru utilized a gentle finger to cease his paramour's rambling. "Hush, Usako. Of course you can spend the night."

Usagi smiled gratefully up at her future husband, then nuzzled her golden head against his heart. "Thank you, Mamo-chan."

A transformation and several rooftop bounds later, Usagi was being placed on her feet by Tuxedo Kamen in the living room of his apartment. However, the small blonde took the man completely by surprise when she lunged into his arms, kissing the life out of him. Kamen froze in surprise, then responded with hungry desire as his hormones kicked in, spreading a dizzying warmth through his system. It was with great restraint that the masked crusader stepped out of Usagi's embrace when she resurfaced for oxygen.

"Usako?" he asked in confusion, laying a gloved palm against Usagi's moist cheek.

"Mamo-chan, I  _need_ this. Please," Usagi insisted, grasping desperately at his hand and ravishing it with her lips. Another tear trickled down her face.

"Are... are you saying we...?" Tuxedo Kamen cursed his lack of articulation, but his astonishment coupled with sudden understanding rushed to parry his eloquence.

"He- Demande, he... he made me realize how easily it can be taken. How... how simple it is, to lose my innocence to someone other than you, Mamo-chan," Usagi choked, body trembling and taut as she pressed herself into him. "And I don't want... he's still out there, and I-"

But no further quivering words were needed. No words were required for the rest of the night, in fact, as Kamen threw himself at Usagi and Usagi to him, legs straddling his waist as the pair toppled into a wall, grappling both lips and limbs.

Mamoru did so relish in tearing off the hideous gown of Demande's fantasies, leaving it in a most haphazard state of disarray on the floor to be burned later. After all, there was a bed drowning in brilliant moonlight just beckoning to house the consummation of a love that had transcended time and phantom alike.

Tomorrow, the search for the missing would commence; tonight, however, the found would rejoice.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Insanity"_


	8. Insanity

Setting: _First season_  
Genre: _AU_

* * *

Chiba Mamoru was not easily surprised.

He could stand apathetic in the face of danger, months of skirting death having dulled his sense of self-preservation. After all, daily skirmishes with youma and Dark Kingdom generals alike had given him much practice in that area of expertise.

He could also weather just about any flight of immaturity flung into his path, be it womanly theatrics or an abundance of teenage angst. After all, four out of five times a week he survived his fair share of encounters with the most effervescent, exasperating, naïve, carefree girl on the planet.

 _But really_ , Mamoru bemoaned as he lost his coffee to the tabletop and Motoki's face in one careening spray,  _this just takes the cake_.

"YOU HAVE A  _WHAT_?" the ebony-haired college student shouted, forgetting all propriety as he slammed down his mug, contents sloshing dangerously, and stormed over to a booth full of blushing girls. He wasn't quite sure why this discomfited him so; it was inconsequential, and hardly his business in the first place. Perhaps it was because his usual quiet study session had been interrupted by Mizuno Ami, of all people, letting slip very loudly the juicy piece of gossip regarding one Tsukino Usagi. Or maybe it was the shock that coursed through his system, along with an unhealthy dose of jealousy as he watched Ami get forcibly yanked down to the hissing whispers of her friends.

Because really… it wasn't every day one discovered that their secret crush had a hickey. A hickey that symbolized she was being nuzzled and kissed by another man. A man that was most certainly  _not_  him.

And so, it was with the intent to interrogate frothing within Mamoru's chest that the eighteen-year-old stalked over to the cowering, incarnadine-cheeked Senshi, eyes burning into the wary cerulean of his Odango Atama… the one he fell for after just one bonk to the scalp from a failed test, gratefully receiving the refuse like his beautiful angel's personal garbage can.

Yes, he was probably insane.

Unfortunately, infatuation tended to include that side-effect, and poor Tsukino Usagi was about to experience it firsthand.

"M-Mamoru-san," the blonde acknowledged, sliding further into her comrade Makoto at the strangely primal expression on her nemesis' countenance. "Funny seeing you here…"

"Is it true?" Mamoru demanded, fists clenching and unclenching as he resisted the urge to seek out Usagi's neck for assurance.

"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," Usagi giggled nervously, turning to glare at Ami when Mamoru frowned. "Not that you care anyway…"

"I care about young girls giving their body away, yes," he growled, internally bashing himself over the head.  _Odango? Giving away her body? Great, way to make a simple hickey sound like prostitution, Chiba. Very smooth._

Apparently, Usagi latched onto this line of thinking and retorted with a vengeance. "Go away, Chiba! I… I have many interested males who… who flock in my wake! And it's my business what I do in my free time, so… so just leave me alone!"

Hino Rei seemed to lose it at this speech, burying her head in her arms and snickering voraciously. Mamoru raised a brow at this display, then turned back to Usagi, appraising her. She sniffed and jerked her face the other way with uppity indignance, finally revealing- albeit inadvertently- the cause of all this hullabaloo. Mamoru swallowed hard at the dark, circular blemish, a little voice lamenting that  _he'd_  wanted to inflict that form of love on the teen… not some immature and horny schoolboy, steadfastly proclaiming his lust with a pressure-induced mark.

"I'm only worried about your safety, Odango," Mamoru intoned at last, tone gentle yet husky with an invisible grief. Usagi started and Makoto twitched a grin, leaning back to watch the odd conversation between the two sworn enemies unfurl. Ami just averted her eyes and stared into her lap, still flushing crimson.

"M-me?"

"Do you fully understand what you're getting yourself into, accepting hickies?"

"I… of course I do," Usagi mumbled, twiddling her fingers anxiously. Rei's howling laughter escalated as Usagi coughed delicately and pushed out of the booth past Mamoru, careful not to brush against him. The college student, for his part, tried futilely to ignore the horrible, disfiguring, ugly, boorish, uncharacteristic blotch of color marring the neck of the girl he'd dubbed his own. It hurt too much to look at, knowing her chances of ending up with him had just decreased drastically because of the hickey's presence. Mamoru gazed mournfully at the blonde's retreating back as she hurriedly scooted over to Motoki with cash and then out the door.

"I can't believe you actually believed that crap," Rei gasped upon Usagi's departure, wiping tears of mirth from her cheeks as she resurfaced. Mamoru pivoted sharply to accost her, eyes bulging.

"You… you mean…?"

"I guess she was too embarrassed to tell you, but it's not even a hickey," the priestess fairly gloated, though there was a foreign gleam in her eyes that hinted of newfound opportunity.

"Rei-chan, I don't think you should-" Ami began concernedly, only to be mollified by Makoto's quelling hand waving at her to shut up and let Rei take the reins.

"Usagi's never even had a boyfriend. The ditz tripped while she was vacuuming and landed face-first on the sucker end, causing that mark. If you'd… er… rushed over here a little sooner, you might have heard the real story."

"You know, I bet Usagi-chan's pretty distraught right now. I think you should apologize, Mamoru-san. Jumping to conclusions is a surefire way to kill any relationship. Or, non-relationship, shall I say?" Makoto drawled blithely, smirking at Mamoru from under her brown bangs with a cheekily knowing expression in place. He gaped at the brawny teen with her arms cast languidly behind her head, fully comprehending Makoto's implications.

"Well don't stand there gawking! You'll miss her entirely!" Rei exclaimed, shoving at the motionless Mamoru. He gulped noisily, then nodded at the trio before racing out of Crown. Rei flicked Ami in the shoulder, smiling.

"Thanks, bookworm."

"For what?" Ami queried, nonplussed. Her eyes swept from Rei to Makoto, frowning.

Makoto leaned back, closing her eyes and grinning manically. "You'll see. For now, we have to be patient. At least until Usagi-chan comes barreling back in here like a bat outta hell..."

oOo

He found her vacillating on his usual haunt of a corner, watching traffic pensively as she rubbed at the fake hickey. Leering at a sudden idea, Mamoru snuck up behind the fourteen-year-old with all the stealth he'd acquired battling Dark Kingdom scum for a living. His left hand snaked out and twirled Usagi around by the arm, stifling her scream with his right. She blinked rapidly up at him, taken aback by his forward greeting as Mamoru crooned,

"Shh. That's no way to address your favorite jerk, is it?"

" _Favorite_? You've got to be kidding me," Usagi returned, pulling out of his loose grip with feisty disparagement. She crossed her arms over her chest, glowering up at him. "What's wrong? Thought your kind didn't typically come slithering out of the gutters during the daytime."

"Touche, Odango," Mamoru chuckled, sucking in a breath when burgeoning sunlight hit the top of Usagi's head just right, creating a golden halo effect. With real effort, he continued to the angel incarnate, "Although Hino-san just shared with me a…  _startling_  development."

Mamoru took a careful step forward, entranced by the fiery glow surrounding Usagi like a heavenly pall of light. He half-expected the blonde to bolt, but for some reason her feet remained rooted to the spot. "She informed me your hickey isn't actually a hickey after all. Funny, that."

"Of course it's a hickey," Usagi murmured, lost in his consuming blue eyes of satin midnight. Mamoru nudged himself even closer, their chests almost touching. Again, he wondered why Usagi didn't run before insanity clouded all else.

"No.  _This_ is a hickey," Mamoru whispered, bending down with dreamlike ease to suckle at a soft patch of skin on the opposite side of Usagi's neck. The teen gasped, toes curling as she unconsciously pressed intimately into Mamoru, body begging for more. The man's feathery lips tickled her neck as his teeth gently ravaged out a bruise, and Usagi closed her eyes… Drowning. Savoring. Utterly mesmerized. She shivered once before the wonderful sensation was gone, and Mamoru's delicious body heat suddenly disappeared. The odangoed teen peeked open her lids, mouthing incomprehensibly as Mamoru glanced uncomfortably down at her. He raked shaky fingers through his shaggy black locks.

"I… I don't know what came over me. I'm really sorry, Odango, I-"

"Shh. That's no way to address your favorite jerk, is it?" Usagi quipped weakly, still trying to master a cogent expression bereft of disorientation. She shook her head, dazed. "What was that?"

"I… I don't know. You felt it too?" Mamoru questioned. He exhaled loudly. "I… guess hickies are pretty powerful stuff, huh?"

"Yeah," Usagi agreed, still in a fog as she fingered her neck gingerly. Mamoru felt a rush of glee seeing his mouth imprinted on her neck so prominently; a visible claim to her heart. He hastened to stifle the welling of joy, however, instead imparting awkwardly,

"I really am sorry. I only wanted to show you… argh, never mind. See you tomorrow, Odango Atama."

"See you tomorrow," Usagi answered, long after the college student had meandered beyond her line of sight. She finally drew back her exploring hand and wandered back in the direction of Crown, where three girls awaited with bets in need of settling.

A strange thought flitted across Usagi's mind just before she crossed the street, realizing that everything between her and the jerk was about to change.

_Tomorrow I'll fake my first kiss as well…_

* * *

Next chapter: _"Cold"_


	9. Cold

Setting: _Crystal Tokyo_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

It was his turn.

The lump in King Endymion's throat swelled painfully as Lady Mercury gestured him somberly onward, the shaky grip she had on composure slipping as the pair connected eyes. With a deep, steadying breath, Crystal Tokyo's monarch squeezed the small hand clutching his. A little sniffle attracted his attention before the man could step forward, and he looked down at Princess Usagi. The sixteen-year-old was gazing up at him pleadingly.

"Do we have to, Papa?" she whispered, ignoring the millions of eyes measuring the two's every move like a callous spotlight.

Endymion ran his fingers through the pink hair that was quickly becoming a more docile strawberry blonde, much like Serenity's had morphed from gold to silver as her powers increased.

 _Serenity_.

The name was like a sadistic twist of the knife, a knife already buried deep within his festering and bleeding heart. Endymion squeezed back tears as he replied softly to his daughter, "Don't you want to say goodbye, Small Lady?"

Usagi's mouth twitched almost imperceptibly downward- 'Small Lady' was hardly a title befitting any teenager, she'd long ago admonished- but as Endymion realized his err, he inwardly praised the girl for her tact. Now was not the time for childish sulking; not when the whole of the kingdom was watching them, and certainly not when  _she_  awaited.

The princess seemed to remember this, and she bit her lip, looking up at the rigid figure half-hidden inside her regal confines mere feet away.

"You won't get another chance," Endymion said, and Usagi gathered her wits at this aching reminder.

"Let's go," she sighed, and her father nodded encouragingly as he led them up the marble dais. Endymion's feet felt like ten pound weights as he and Usagi ascended, his eyes blinking sluggishly and body shivering slightly in an uncontrolled denial. Seeing his wife like this... encased forever in a bed of silver, hands folded perfectly over her stomach...

The King stopped when they were standing directly in front of the open coffin. His breath caught at the sight of Neo-Queen Serenity's face, serene as it had been in life. She could have been sleeping, with the only giveaway that no spark resided behind her calm features being the pale hue to Her Majesty's skin. Endymion heard his daughter give a muffled sob, and even though he felt like breaking down himself, the presence of Serenity kept him stoic; detached. Part of him was still waiting for her to crack open one gloriously exuberant blue eye and wink, stifling snickers at this latest ruse that had succeeded only too well. But he knew that would not happen.

Because Neo-Queen Serenity was dead. Dead as the silence of the royal chambers in the early morning; lifeless as the heartstrings of Endymion's soul. He bent over almost without thinking to press a kiss to Serenity's stone cold lips, praying with all his might that the warmth would somehow revive the drained specter Endymion loved so fervently. He wanted to feel her cheeks flush; to observe the subtle jerks that precluded Serenity's every awakening since the day Endymion wed her. He wanted a miracle, that's what, but all of Endymion's fiercest wishes fell on deaf ears because when the man finally resurfaced, tears escaping down his cheeks, Serenity was still as cold and unmoving as a block of carefully chiseled ice.

"I tried, Usako," he uttered miserably, tracing a finger down her frozen profile. "I guess that sort of thing only happens once a lifetime."

"She looks so peaceful," the younger Usagi commented quietly from beside Endymion, mopping her countenance of moisture delicately with a handkerchief. The King wondered when his little girl had become so prim and proper, and then he surmised sadly that the metamorphosis must have occurred while his back was turned. Serenity's quickly ailing health had surprised them all, but none more so than Princess Usagi. It was with grudging acceptance that Crystal Tokyo's heir shouldered her mantle, aware that the time would soon come when her parents' reign concluded. Neo-Queen Serenity's unexpected death had been the hammer to the nail; the Pyrrhic victory for an unwilling Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity. This funeral symbolized an end and a beginning. Tomorrow, Endymion would be deemed regent. Tomorrow, Usagi would be Queen Lady Serenity of Crystal Tokyo. "And the roses crowning her head... what a fitting touch. Mama would have liked that."

"She never did prefer jewels, did she?" Endymion laughed half-heartedly, reluctantly pulling his hand away from the coffin. Instead, he wrapped an arm around Usagi. "Come. There are hundreds of mourners who wish to bid farewell to your mother; to celebrate her existence and grieve her passing. It would not be kind of us to monopolize the public's desire."

After one last reverent eye-sweep of Serenity's body, King Endymion led them back down the stairs. He knew his heart had remained in that glittering casket beside the Queen, and that life would never be the same until the cold that afflicted Serenity called him to join her as well. Still, Usagi's altruistic declaration assured Endymion that there was still hope.

"You're right. Mama doesn't belong to us anymore. We have to share, because she is everybody's angel now."

The painful lump was back. That was such a Chibi-Usa thing to say, and he heard shadows of the girl's mother in the sentiment. Endymion hugged Usagi to him, gracing heaven with a grateful smile for having left a piece of Serenity in his care. So long as he had Small Lady, he had his beloved.

And that would satiate him until the day the family was allowed to reunite for all eternity.

_Wait for me, Usako._

* * *

Next Chapter: _"The Best Part of Breaking Up"_


	10. The Best Part of Breaking Up

Setting: _Future, pre-Crystal Tokyo_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

Mamoru absolutely loved to break up with Usagi.

He truly did, and at times the man even wondered if psychologically there was something seriously, seriously wrong with him. After all, what boyfriend staged arguments just to watch in excitement and delight as their girlfriend flushed all manner of colors? Over time, breaking up had even become a bit of a game. They'd be sitting watching television and out would slip an innocent little gibe, usually about her hair or the dinner Mamoru reckoned starving hobos would reject for fear of food poisoning.

Then, like a spark to fire, Usagi would come to life with righteous indignation. Twisting in her seat, or sometimes standing in fanaticism, she would rail against him with insults abound. Her favorite topic seemed to be his jacket, which she often compared to "Broccoli, the wrong way out!"

Yelling at the top of their lungs, and probably giving poor Mrs. Forty-Seven downstairs a heart attack in the process, the pair would then proceed to vent their frustrations in a voice to rival the other. For Mamoru, this part was always a wonderful release to a love that, at times, seemed  _too_ perfect. If he and Usagi were like the earth and the moon, perfect complements, so too were they oil and water. Some days were the epitome of passion, but without conflict to work through, these moments dragged on into monotony. He didn't want to ever take their life, their relationship, for granted. He wanted to be grateful every day for the joy Usagi brought him, and for some reason, reverting back to their teenage selves and breaking up served to reinforce that sentiment. 'You don't know what you have until it's gone,' the wise maxim proclaims.

Of course, it never did get  _that_  far.

"That's  _it_! We-are-through!"

"Fine! See if I care! Walk out the door, go!"

And then they would simply stand there, two brimming polar opposites gasping for breath in the wake of fury. Measuring each other during a mutual reprieve, some might say. Others, that the couple were simply taking a moment to compose themselves after loudly expressing their emotions.

Mamoru knew that neither of these assumptions were true.

Because the best part of breaking up is making up, and before Mamoru even had the chance to blink, Usagi would be on him. Tearing at his clothes, her clothes; lips crushing together with all the feverish insistence of apology they could muster. Mamoru would reach his hands up to tangle themselves in Usagi's hair as she responded in kind. This would go on for several minutes until Usagi tugged away from him, usually to pull the two of them into the bedroom with a silly giggle, and at this inadvertent admission Mamoru would smile.

Because he knew, breaking up was just as much a game to him as it was to Usagi.

The only question begging to be asked is, which one loved it  _more?_

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Jaded Silence"_


	11. Jaded Silence

Setting: _Future, pre-Crystal Tokyo_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

He did not deserve her perfection.

She was a paladin crowned in glowing light as the sun peeked into their apartment, reigning in the new dawn. Hair afire and features serene, Mamoru knew there were simply no words to describe Tsukino Usagi's flawless beauty- inside, and out. He sighed, reaching out to gently tuck a loose strand of golden hair behind his wife's ear. Usagi twitched, just once, at the touch. For a moment Mamoru feared he had awakened her, but then the man chuckled.

What a silly thought. The girl slept through just about anything, be it her alarm clock or the apocalypse. Of course he hadn't roused her.

Still, Mamoru kept his movement limited as he quietly slipped from the bed and began getting ready for his early shift at the hospital. The silence of their apartment was almost deafening, so used to Usagi's tinkling laughter was he. Ever since she moved in, Mamoru had forgotten what utter silence such as this entailed. On one hand he welcomed the opportunity for reflection, but on the other he grieved at the aching stillness so devoid of the Odango Atama's cheer. As if to reassure himself, Mamoru ducked his head back into the bedroom as he chewed pensively on toast.

Usagi had rolled into the warmth of his body's wake, snuggling deeply into the imprint left on the duvet. What Mamoru would have given to simply lay there beside the blonde, watching her dream... Every breathe she took in and every puff of air she released was a gift to Mamoru; a sense of fulfillment that all was now right with his life. He had a promising future. A family. He had  _Usagi_.

And yet, there were times when doubt crept into Mamoru's mind; when the silence was so overpowering that it sliced through all of the man's defenses. Perhaps he was simply jaded, or self-deprecating. Whatever the reason, Mamoru could not help but regard his slumbering slip of an angel with a painful sense of unworthiness.

She was like a fresh breath of sunlight after endless night. He was a cold specter fit for the shadows; a brooding Adonis with dark eyes and an even darker outlook on life.

She was magnificent, lively, and a shining star to all who had the grace of knowing her. He was bland, boring, and preferred skulking corners like the world's most uninteresting wallflower.

She forgave the world of its injustices with one sympathetic bat of her encompassing blue eyes. He distrusted everyone, held grudges, and placed his faith in few confidantes.

Sometimes Mamoru wondered just how Destiny had managed to matchmake him and Usagi when they were such polar opposites; when she was so resplendent and he so arid. It was a mystery even the silence could not solve, but as Mamoru pressed gentle kisses to his wife's closed eyelids he knew that, undeserving or not, he wouldn't have wanted life to turn out any other way.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Coy Diplomacy"_


	12. Coy Diplomacy

Setting: _Silver Millennium_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

"King Terran, Queen Gaia, Prince Endymion... I present to you my daughter, Princess Serenity; heir to the throne of the Silver Millennium."

A dainty hand reached out and was clasped by the three royal Earthlings, who in turn laid chaste kisses onto the soft skin with reverently mumbled greetings.

"How do you do?" the golden-haired goddess fairly purred with demure grace, her heavenly countenance bright as the woman pinned each guest with a sweet smile. Her vivacious blue eyes lingered for just a fraction of a second longer on Prince Endymion, and his lips twitched upward into a barely disguised smirk before the man donned his usual diplomatic mask. Serenity blinked bashfully, face seeking out the floor until she remembered her place. A princess never averted her eyes during important monarchical conversation.

"Shall we retire to the tea room?" Queen Serenity of the Silver Moon suggested, as elegant as her daughter was beautiful. She waved her arm toward the arching doorway leading off the balcony, into the majestically decorated chamber within. A servant appeared by her side almost instantly, asking the visitors if they wished to unload some of their heavy outer garments. While the king and queen politely declined, Endymion shrugged his armor and cape off without a second thought and passed it over to the attendant. Gaia pursed her lips.

"Mother, they aren't planning to attack us," Endymion murmured under his breath, rolling his charmingly dark eyes. The distrust between the Earthlings and Lunarians was so fervent it was almost risible, at least to the younger generation. Princess Serenity hastily changed her giggle into a delicate cough, and Endymion's coy grin made a second reappearance. Queen Serenity, pretending to ignore this exchange, thanked the servant and led the group into her private tea room. Or, as her daughter secretly referred to it, the unspoken negotiation room. It was the perfect setting for peaceful mediation- comfortable armchairs, colorful paintings, and an opulent fireplace that constantly emitted pleasant waves of warmth. Of course, it also helped that Queen Serenity consistently maintained a tranquil attitude, even in the face of spite. Her younger namesake never failed to feel a sense of awe while watching her mother interact with alien consuls, wondering if she had the ability to step into that demanding role when the time came. As it was, Princess Serenity dreaded political discourse such as this. She would rather have spent the morning quietly roaming the gardens, but this meeting was too crucial for her to miss. This meeting would determine whether her future shattered into heartbreaking oblivion or was wrapped up neatly in a pretty red bow.

If Terran and Gaia didn't acquiesce...

No. She didn't even want to consider the possibility. Serenity stiffened her shoulders, trying not to let any of the rogue emotions leak onto her features. She followed her silver-haired mother into the tea room, claiming the sofa in front of the Earthlings. Endymion seemed to fidget nervously before finally deciding to stare into the crackling fire, allowing his parents full reign over the conversation. Serenity knew exactly how he felt. She sighed, waiting for the gavel to fall.

"So... it is of your opinion, Highness, that our son should marry your daughter?" Terran began, nodding to Princess Serenity impassively.

"That is correct. I believe an alliance between the earth and the moon would be beneficial to both parties. If I may speak frankly, Terran, I think this animosity has gone on long enough. We need to end the cycle, now, before it is too late. I do not wish for a war to break out," Queen Serenity entreated passionately.

Terran and Gaia shared a look, and both were silent for a few moments until Gaia prompted softly, "Endymion?"

The aforementioned prince started, evicting himself from reverie. He cleared his throat, glancing momentarily at Princess Serenity's intense expression. "The Queen has a valid point, Father. This betrothal has the potential to seal an alliance between our restless nations. If we can sway the people, we can ensure the peace Earth has desired for so long."

"And what of that self-proclaimed sorceress, Endymion? Beryl's cries for revolution, for the overthrow of the Silver Millennium, are not falling on deaf ears. I fear if we allow this marriage, we are paving the way for insurrection."

"And what if Beryl  _does_  succeed?" Endymion argued. "You are the king, Father. You have access to legions of militants; to one of the finest bred armies around. Could Beryl and her meager minion of rebels stand up to the power of the monarchy? I think not. If revolution occurred, we would take it in stride. If I may speak boldly, sir, you can't deny how the overwhelming pros far outweigh the cons regarding a union between the earth and moon kingdoms. Earth would do well to proceed with this agreement."

"Your son is wise, Terran," Queen Serenity praised amiably, eying Endymion with a new measure of respect. "He would be a valuable asset to the Silver Millennium as High King."

Terran seemed to relax at this, realizing his only son would, through marriage, rule the most powerful alliance in all the Solar System. For the first time, a brilliant smile lit up his ancient features. "Gaia, I do believe a betrothal celebration is in order."

Queen Serenity grabbed up her daughter's hand, beaming as widely as Terran and Gaia. "Then please, let us host a ball for Serenity and Endymion. Tonight. Won't you honor the Moon Kingdom with your presence?"

oOo

The rest of the day seemed to fly by in a blur for Princess Serenity. As she was escorted from one activity to the next, her feet seemed to float on air and her smile refused to fade. After perhaps the hundredth congratulations, however, the blonde-haired woman began to grow slowly weary. She had yet to catch a moment alone with her future husband, constantly being chaperoned by either her mother or the Senshi guard. The ball was even worse than Serenity's busy afternoon; sitting perched at the decadent feast, rows away from Endymion, she nearly lost it.

Of course, princesses aren't allowed to simply  _lose it_.

And that was why, at a quarter to midnight, Serenity caught Endymion's attention with a drop of her handkerchief. She resurfaced from underneath the table, flushing. Endymion chuckled, following suit as he recognized the sign. Serenity quickly excused herself, claiming a headache. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Endymion took the inattention to slip away himself. Only the ever-observant Sailor Mercury seemed to notice, but Serenity's guardian did little more than shake her head in exasperation. She was surprised they hadn't utilized that ploy sooner.

oOo

Princess Serenity stood alone in her bedroom, staring out the window at the vibrant blue and green gem that would soon be her home. Or... would it? She surmised her mother would probably want her and Endymion to stay close to the moon, but more than anything Serenity wanted to escape. She wanted bubbling brooks and chirping birds; green grass and flowers that grew without needing to be re-planted every season. For as long as the Silver Millennium's heir could remember, Earth had been her dream. But even now, when it seemed the planet was at her fingertips, Serenity felt the suffocating grip of her royal duties. Sometimes... sometimes, all she wanted was Endymion and the peaceful certitude of a normal life. Sometimes she hated the moon.

"Rose for your thoughts?"

Serenity felt his strong arms encircle her stomach, pulling the blonde into a protective embrace. She giggled when he flicked his hands, and the aforementioned flower suddenly appeared. She loved it when he did that.

Endymion offered the gift up to Serenity, and she gave a great whiff of the saccharine blossom before gently resting it on the windowsill. Then she twisted in Endymion's arms, pressing her body to his. The princess reached up and cradled his perfectly chiseled cheekbones in either of her petite palms. "It's finally happening, Endy. We did it. We won. We're getting married!"

Endymion groaned in pure joy, tangling his fingers in Serenity's gossamer odango. "I was so worried Father wouldn't agree. He seemed so adamant. But by Selene, was that ball  _dull_."

Serenity giggled; a wonderfully tinkling and carrying peal. "And you wondered why I wanted to leave this place..."

Endymion joined in her mirth, squeezing his fiancee close. "Not to mention the agony I had to endure, pretending we were nothing more than acquaintances when all I wanted to do was sweep you into my arms and kiss you senseless..."

Serenity began wiggling out of his grasp with a teasing look on her face. "Oh, would you look at the time! They'll be unveiling the cake any moment-"

"Don't play coy, Sere," Endymion growled, locking her between his sturdy frame and the wall. "I mean it. It's nothing short of torture having to keep up the chaste strangers facade."

Serenity stopped struggling, but her cerulean eyes continued sparkling in mischief. "But Endymion... we don't have to hide anymore. We're getting  _married_. It's okay to broadcast our love for all the planets to see!"

Endymion paused, revelation dawning. He let out a whooshing breath, shoulders freed of tension as the prince laughed aloud. He dragged Serenity out onto her bedroom's balcony. "Then I want all the planets to see  _this_."

And then Prince Endymion proceeded to kiss the golden-haired deity senseless against the railing, easing her higher until the couple was at level with the earth's image superimposed in the sky.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Taming of the Shrew"_


	13. Taming of the Shrew

Setting: _First season_  
Genre: _AU_

* * *

Motoki was the one who first gave him the idea, completely by accident of course.

Mamoru never in a million years would have thought to apply the devious scheme to his own situation, but of course life is just full of unexpected solutions. Namely, how to tame the shrew also known as Tsukino Usagi. The girl had a penchant for going off on tangents with an endless stream of commentary that usually came back to him and his "bland personality, obsession with coffee, and awful sense of fashion". Motoki often likened her to an excitable puppy prone to bouts of yapping, always in the most affectionate and brotherly of ways.

Mamoru wasn't quite sure Odango Atama hadn't descended from a breed of talking parrots with an annoying propensity for piercing, nails-on-a-chalkboard screeching fits. And that was on a good day.

Gifted with infinitely more intelligence than the childish teen, or so he'd always accredited, Mamoru decided his plan to intercept Usagi's daily ranting was just about flawless.

Unfortunately- or maybe fortunately- he never expected it to backfire.

oOo

The madness began on an ordinary Monday.

Chiba Mamoru, a college student merely minding his own business behind a calculus textbook and his usual cup of black coffee, never even saw it coming. Of course, most times he didn't see her coming, but Usagi's frequent appearances were rather clockwork in nature so he supposed some part of him  _did_  expect to be rudely interrupted... but that's not the point.

The point, my friends, is that what occurred next deviated sharply from the norm, altering the course of this temperamental pair's relationship for years to come.

"HE'S IN MY SPOT! Motoki-onee-san, why is he  _always_  in my spot? Can't you rope it off? Put up a 'reserved' sign? This chair has been where I have sat to eat my triple scoop hot fudge sundae since I was in my  _fifth year of school_ , and NO ONE, not even a-"

The world may never know what colorful and unique description our dear Tsukino Usagi had concocted for her nemesis, Chiba Mamoru. And perhaps we are better off for it.

Usagi suddenly found her mouth  _very_ occupied, and to her consternation, it wasn't of the unpleasant sort either. The girl shivered, just once, before smacking her palms against Mamoru's chest and giving a hard push. The college student tottered backward, coffee sloshing as his lips were forcibly detached from Tsukino Usagi's. Mamoru cleared his throat awkwardly and wiped at his mouth with a triumphant gleam in his dark eyes. Motoki stared, pale and probably on the verge of a faint with his dirty washcloth hanging uselessly at the sandy blonde's side.

Usagi settled for another shriek. "WHAT THE HELL, CREEP? WHAT MAKES YOU THINK-"

Mamoru landed another wet one on Usagi's bewildered face. She choked in surprise, pulling back to finish her admonishments only to be thwarted once more.

oOo

On and on it went.

Mamoru used to count, just for fun, how many times he kissed Odango Atama a day. The most he got to was thirty nine, but that was before losing track. Now the man reckoned the total was somewhere between forty and fifty. Once in a while he wondered why Usagi never caught on; if she was truly as dull as he'd previously believed. But you see, all plans have their chinks. What Mamoru failed to foresee, and what Usagi eventually grasped, was that these kisses had come to hide a growing attraction; a chemistry as volatile and as passionate as the fights the two so enjoyed to partake in. The interim between insults expanded with each passing day as the silence of intimacy wiggled its way into their every encounter. Mamoru began to forget the reason for his little game, and there were times when he would swoop in for a smooch before Usagi had even said a word.

It wasn't until a most extraordinary Thursday at the Crown that Mamoru remembered, but by then the distraction method had become something else entirely.

"Motoki-kun, I swear, it took me  _double_  the time to walk from campus to here because of that stupid-"

Mamoru froze when he was cut off by a deep, lingering kiss from none other than an unusually bold Tsukino Usagi. He blinked dumbly for a few seconds after they separated, breath catching as Usagi eased herself off tiptoe. Despite the severance, Mamoru could still feel Usagi pressed tightly up against his shaky frame, and a delicious waft of lavender and vanilla combined to assault the ebony-haired man's senses.

"O-Odango...?"

"Hush. Do you know how worried I was when you didn't show up?" Usagi asked sincerely, a small crease between her eyebrows illustrating the blonde's concern. Mamoru shook his head, eyes feasting on the emotion contained in the girl's similarly azure depths. Had she really been fretting? Over  _him_? But... no one had ever expressed care for him; not  _poor Chiba Mamoru_ , the orphan who held everyone at icy distance.

Mamoru licked his lips. He marveled at the fact that Usagi's voice had ever aggravated him. Now it sounded positively heavenly, with the merest suggestion of a pealing bell- cheery and bright- to add to the blonde's dulcet tones. Not screaming at each other certainly helped change his perception, Mamoru realized. "I'm sorry, Us... Usako. May... I call you that? It's a much nicer nickname than Odango Atama."

Usagi chuckled at Mamoru's nervous query. "I think I'd like that... Mamo-chan."

Eternity wove into a single ephemeral moment in which Usagi smiled at Mamoru and Mamoru at Usagi. And then, before either knew what was happening, Mamoru leaned down and Usagi tilted her head to accept a feather light brush of Mamoru's lips; a kiss that was suddenly more intense and more heartfelt than any of their sloppy, teasing Frenches had ever been.

Somewhere behind the counter, a loud thump resounded and Motoki's worn old rag skittered across the floor, away from its stupefied owner.

Suffice to say, Usagi and Mamoru ignored the noise in favor of a more worthy distraction.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Intervention"_


	14. Intervention

Setting: _Fourth season_  
Genre: _AU_

* * *

Usagi released a deep and cleansing sigh, slouching lazily in her inflatable recliner... thingy. She frowned. Or... whatever the heck it was called. Ami would have scolded her for not using the device's proper name, but right now, Usagi could have cared less. The day was hot and the water was cool, lapping eagerly up against her bikini-clad waist as the blonde languished atop the pool's sparkling surface. She peeked sideways for her friends, pouting at their inattention. Even Ami, whom Usagi would have pinned as the first person to join her, was draped across a stylish teal towel with a science textbook tucked into her hand. And the others, well, they seemed more interested in their burgeoning tans than Usagi's boredom. Which did  _not_ jibe well in the Odango Atama's world.

"Mamoooo- _chan_! Come  _on_!"

"Fifteen more minutes, Usako," the aforementioned college student with a mop of ebony for hair intoned patiently, gesturing to his sunscreen-lathered torso. Usagi huffed, scowling. Typical Mamo-chan, not wanting to set foot in the water until he followed every instruction to its sticky letter on the bottle's back... She flicked at her arm, slimy and white after having lost the battle to Usagi's impatience. So what was a little sunburn, anyway? Certainly no one could point at her for vitamin D deficiency!

"Chibi-Usa?"

"Idiot! Can't you see I'm busy?" the irate pink spore hollered from her perch next to the snack bar, a rugged old shack that Usagi had already half cleaned out from the moment of her arrival. Chibi-Usa was chatting up the young, sandy-haired adolescent behind the counter. Usagi recognized the boy from her future daughter's elementary school. He was a few years ahead of the effervescently adorned preteen, but Usagi could tell from the way he kept staring at Chibi-Usa's plunging yellow neckline that the girl was utilizing her natural charm and maturing endowments to the fullest extent- hoping, no doubt, for a cold treat. She was about to get one in the form of Mamoru, on the prowl upon noticing, like Usagi, the cashier's wandering eyes. The fifteen-year-old snickered from her front row seat, floating in the deep end, but the fun was short-lived. There was a lot less blood than she was expecting. Poo poo.

Usagi collapsed back against the damp inflatable, shooting daggers heavenward. "Can't  _someone_ play with me?"

"Don't be so childish all the time, Usagi," Rei's voice admonished from across the pool. The raven-headed priestess didn't even glance over, or at least it didn't seem like it from Usagi's vantage point. Which made the gibe even more infuriating. Stupid shades. "It isn't becoming."

"Ho ho,  _you're_  one to talk,  _Miss Hino_!"

"I'm not the fifteen-year-old begging for a playmate..."

"No, you're the girl just asking for heatstroke- looking a little red there, Rei-chan. Left shoulder stands out like a sore thumb."

"WHAT? No, I'm not! And, and... it's only a small patch of pink! Barely noticeable!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Play with me!"

"No!"

"... just for a few minutes?"

"NO!"

Usagi aimed a tongue Rei's way and her sparring partner responded in kind, before smartly shifting position so she was no longer facing either the sun or Usagi. The odangoed blonde went back to wallowing in misery, splashing water in random directions until inspiration hit as swiftly as her doldrums. She grinned at the devilish plot slowly taking form in her head.

" _OW_!"

It seemed that was all Usagi really needed from the beginning; that one word, convincingly inflected with just the right amount of strength and facial constriction, gained Mamoru's attention in a snap.

"Usako?"

"Cramp..." she hissed, fingers kneading an imaginary pain in her side. Usagi spared one final glance at Mamoru's concerned features before doubling over. "Ohhhhh, it  _hurts_..."

She reasoned it was probably hurting more to keep the silly smirk off her face as Mamoru jumped up and made for the pool, fresh sunscreen forgotten. But that was irrelevant, really. What currently mattered most was the fact that the fifteen-year-old finally had a companion, so when Mamoru reached Usagi in the deep end the girl sprung up, good as new.

"Yaaay! You came!" she beamed, bouncing up and down so excitedly that her joy was almost-  _almost_ \- worth the inconvenience.

"Usako..." Mamoru scowled, touching a hand to his temple with an exasperated shake of the head. "What have I told you about crying wolf?"

"I'm not crying wolf. I'm saving you from your own... finicky, um, ness."

Mamoru cocked a brow as Usagi nodded seriously, laying a hand on either of her boyfriend's slippery shoulders while he dangled off the brightly colored floatie. "This is an intervention. I, Tsukino Usagi, have decided that you need to ease up on those fussy habits of yours. We're on vacation! So have fun.  _Relax_. And stay with your beloved girlfriend in the darn pool before she drives herself mad!"

"That's relaxing?" Mamoru repeated teasingly, mirth tugging the corners of his mouth upward. "Sounds more like psychiatric therapy to me."

" _Mamo-chan_!"

"Okay, okay, I'll render my services! But only because you're the prettiest mental patient I've ever had the delight of working with," Mamoru laughed, sliding his arms around Usagi's waist. The teen chuckled before flinging herself off the inflatable and into the arms of her leering lover. Unfortunately, she had failed to remember how slick they were and instead of meeting damp skin, Usagi encountered Mamoru's particularly greasy pectorals. There was only a moment to squeal in surprise before hers and Mamoru's combined weight colliding sent them both down, to the very bottom of the pool.

Limbs twisted and tangled as water accosted the pair, the abrupt descent and subsequent submergence confusing both as they fought to find equilibrium. At some point during the scuffle Usagi lost her sunglasses to the current, and her knee accidentally jerked into Mamoru's jaw as she strove to free herself from the mangled mess they had become. In response, his own hands whooshed up to protect said muscle from any further blows, but they ended up getting stuck in a most compromising position instead. A very,  _very_  compromising position.

Usagi suddenly ceased all discombobulated flailing as she felt the unexpected touch, Mamoru's right hand stuck between the fabric of her bikini bottom and the warmth of her groin. She groaned, sending up a cascade of bubbles while Mamoru froze, locked in the throes of shock and thoughts raging about a mile a minute. There was a full five seconds of delayed reaction following the slip, in which Usagi made no move to distance herself and Mamoru's hormones debated heatedly with his conscience. At last sense won out, and he pulled the intrusive appendage away from the convex of Usagi's thighs. She shivered, reveling in foreign sensation as one of Mamoru's fingers brushed- perhaps intentionally; she did not know- against her sweet spot. With the water now settled and their bodies more or less extricated, Usagi turned to appraise Mamoru. He gave her a shy smile that she softly returned, mouthing,

"Sorry."

Usagi shook her head fervently, but at this point her lungs began to painfully remind the girl of her need for oxygen. In a last act of underwater intimacy, Usagi placed a quick kiss to Mamoru's right hand. Mamoru gaped, clearly dazed, but the college student said nothing as they ascended up toward the shimmering sun. The pair spluttered together for a few seconds after breaking through the surface, and when they were finished spitting water Usagi graced shaken Mamoru with what could only be a naughty little wink.

"I hope you enjoyed your intervention, Mamo-chan."

Mamoru just blinked, not sure what was more disconcerting- the fact that Usagi made an innuendo, the multiple missed heartbeats in his chest, or that five female onlookers were staring down at them from the edge of the pool, countenances a muddled array of horror and awe after listening to Usagi voice said innuendo. Belatedly, he wondered exactly how long the Senshi had been standing there, until Chibi-Usa marched away from her gawking comrades with a disgusted but revealing,

"I... need to go bleach my eyes out now."

And Mamoru, poor red-faced man that he was, merely turned to Usagi and whispered equally as suggestively, "I hope it was as  _relaxing_  for you as it was for me. I look forward to similar interventions in the future, Dr. Usako."

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Alive"_


	15. Alive

Setting: _Any, pre-Crystal Tokyo_  
Genre: _AU_

* * *

The black hole appeared out of nowhere, stretching a patch of periwinkle sky taut. It yawned wider and wider until, with a great gasp, a bedraggled teen was spat from the center of the abyss. The blonde- a girl, seemingly stuck in that awkward period between childhood and adulthood- toppled bonelessly onto the green lawn below, hardly moving as the dimensional rift slowly closed. The only indication that she was still alive, alive but battered, was the heavily labored 'in, out' motion of her chest as the unexpected newcomer choked for air.

For the longest moment she simply laid there, shivering as the faint sound of cackling faded away, but whether it originated from her mind or the depths of the inky, bottomless void of hell that had been her only scenery during the long journey back, the girl did not know. She was simply glad it was puttering away to nothing, that mad laughter so keen on haunting her every dream, leaving in its wake a merciful silence.

Grass prickled her nose as the teen in a shabby and ripped school uniform tried to roll over, to increase her flow of oxygen, but as the seconds tallied up she settled for simply turning her head into the dirt. Pressure built on her ear as it dug into the soft ground, but the familiar organic smell was comforting. It reminded her of times long past, when days were filled with sandboxes and the company of a bright-faced new friend named Naru who wanted to share her red shovel. When the most terrifying monsters could be chased away by Mama's stern finger-wagging under the bed. When she didn't have to fear that tomorrow would see her snatched off the face of the earth to endure yet another round of torture at the hand of her sadistic enemies...

 _Even the most precious moon-toy will break if you push her to the edge often enough_ , the chilling voice of only hours earlier mocked in the teen's memory.

The girl groaned, this time putting more effort into sitting up and greater concentration into forgetting  _them_. Agony shot through all regions of her body, but just as she was about to give it up as futile, help arrived in a shriek that sang of both relief and horror.

"USAGI!"

_Mama..._

Footsteps reverberated as a dull throbbing beneath her head, and then the teenager known as Usagi felt hands gently grip her shoulders, her waist, her legs.  _So many hands..._

In the brief interim it took for them to ease Usagi upright, she fought off both dizziness and a wave of panic. Her brain had to remind itself that not all hands are bad; not all hands seek to bring injury...

As the blonde's vision cleared and the aching receded to a more manageable discomfort, she saw a multitude of faces swimming over her, framed by the tall white elegance of her childhood home. This in itself was not surprising in the least-  _they_ took great pleasure in always depositing Usagi in the same place after the usual... session.

Tired eyes sweeping over her friends and family, one by one, Usagi silently thanked each for their presence, for their fortitude, for their concern. She stopped on a pair of anguished blue orbs, blinking back at her desperately. Usagi reached out her arms.

"Mamo-chan," she croaked simply, and in that instant Mamoru was there, catching her weak form as it collapsed against his. She could feel him shaking as the girl clung to the fabric of her soulmate's shirt, muscles like quivering arrows on the precipice of release, and yet no tears colored his cheeks and neither did any appear on Usagi's. After a full two months of this endless uncertainty, this sick cycle of capture-torture-freedom, they simply had no more to spare. The same could not be said for Tsukino Ikuko, weeping brokenly into her apron, but everyone dealt with the situation differently. As for Usagi, resignation was the route she had decided to take, and at her insistence, the others were to follow suit. Until the Sailor Senshi discovered the Achilles heel- the one weakness to exploit to bring down their enemy- Usagi would be a slave to their adversaries' whims; a toy to play with at will.

 _It is what it is_ , she had once commented sadly during a rare hiatus of peace. That was what happened when the world knew your secret; when the name Sailor Moon became synonymous to all as a short, rather unimpressive young high-schooler named Tsukino Usagi. When the global effect of the media was not lost on aliens hellbent on revenge...

"Are you alright?" Mamoru whispered against Usagi's ratty blonde locks, half escaping their normal odango. His lips roved through her hair; traced frenzied kisses down her temple and across her rough countenance. Usagi took a deep breath and pulled back from the safety of his embrace.

"No worse than last time," she answered solemnly, and Mamoru's response was a simple grunt. The frustration was clear in his features as the man gave his girlfriend a once-over, not failing to miss the dried bloodstains and varying degrees of healing bruises. Usagi sighed and caressed him on the cheek, watching out of the corner of her eye as her unconventional homecoming drew a crowd and, to her disgust, the usual smattering of paparazzi clicking away.

In that vulnerable second, ensconced in Mamoru's arms and still fighting the remnants of pain, Usagi experienced an intense rush of fury.  _How dare they._  How dare they find fascination in her suffering... Didn't they know, she did this for them? That she refused to hide, to steal herself away from danger because she wanted to protect  _them_ , gawking insensitive onlookers that they were-

 _Stop_ , a little voice ordered softly from within Usagi, almost serenely but with an undeniable edge of authority. It was the voice Usagi imagined Neo-Queen Serenity would one day bear, but at this moment she did not know if it came from her own conscience, or some otherworldly and wise being who sounded uncannily like a Serenity. She did not question, only listened.  _Do not let yourself stoop to the cruelty of those you fight. Do not harden yourself. It is worth it. They are worth it._

 _But I'm tired,_ the abused, emotionally raw part of Usagi protested weakly.  _I don't know if I can do this anymore. I just... hurt._

_Love. Hope. Dreams. Faith. Joy. Justice. Never forget that which you must preserve, Tsukino Usagi..._

Usagi steeled herself, nodding inwardly. She inhaled deeply as she pushed the pervading anger from her heart, smiling toward her neighbors, her admirers, and her shutterbug followers.

_That's right, I do this for you. I do this for all of you, for the world, and for those who will continue on when we are gone. Love, truth, and justice... I believe. I believe in it._

And as long as Usagi remembered that, cradling it like flickering flame to her chest, then the promise of peace would keep her warm, sane, and fighting throughout all the torment and darkness sure to come.

But most importantly, it would keep her alive- a gift Usagi never failed to undervalue with each breath that passed through her.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"A Hair-Raising Problem"_


	16. A Hair-Raising Problem

Setting: _Crystal Tokyo_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

King Endymion jerked out of a sound sleep, to the hair-raising noise of a terrified scream renting the brisk night air. Its shattering decibels seemed to rock even the very foundations of Crystal Palace, but no bedchamber felt the reverberations more acutely than that of the Royal Family.

Endymion rolled onto his side, to see his beautiful Neo-Queen already awake and facing him. The look in her eyes was frightening to behold, and he would have given just about anything to be able to chase away the haunted shadows currently darkening her irises. He reached out and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I'll get her this time."

He slipped from the silk bedsheets with practiced ease.  _Too much practice_ , he thought with rueful inflection. The room was devoid of light, the moon stifled behind a ruthless swarm of cobalt-grey rain clouds, but his feet knew exactly where to steer him. Across the floor, out the hall, second door on the left.

To the epicenter.

Endymion pushed gently on the wood until it gave way, creating as little a disturbance as possible. Not that it would have truly mattered - the source of the scream was still unawares, though fitfully so. Her eyes snapped back and forth under their lids, her breathing harsh and shallow as she tossed around atop her decadent canopy bed.

The King sighed sadly. His eight-year-old should be dreaming about unicorns, ice cream, and what she wanted to be when she grew up. Not quartz coffins, deranged phantoms, and the hubris of having willingly embraced the destructive power of the Malefic Black Crystal. Chibi-Usa had experienced horrors no child should ever have to endure, and now she was paying the price. There had not been a single night in the past four months that she hadn't roused them, shrieking bloody murder from a gruesome nightmare about the trials of the year previous.

It was exhausting, it was frustrating, and it broke his and Serenity's hearts.

Every. Single. Time.

It never got any easier, either. Endymion approached his petite and flailing progeny with all the grace of a provoked papa bear, clambering to her side and giving the girl a solid shake. He did not want Chibi-Usa trapped inside her mind any longer than was absolutely necessary.

"Small Lady! Wake up. It's just a dream.  _Small Lady_!"

She came to with a gasp and a sharp cry, plaintive in nature. Her wild incarnadine eyes scanned the room, desperate, and her defensive stance only relaxed when she alighted upon Endymion. It was as if Chibi-Usa's body were a marionette's with strings abruptly cut; she sagged alarmingly, appearance seemingly boneless, until a steady stream of tremors began to wrack her small frame. Endymion knew this part well - he reached up his arms at the exact time Chibi-Usa collapsed into them.

"It was me, it was all my fault," she moaned, and her voice had a fanatical edge to it. "I stole the Silver Crystal!"

Endymion tried to prepare himself for the litany he knew would follow; the self-flagellation; the inner demons who feasted upon his daughter's conscience night after night after night. Sometimes she lamented events past, and sometimes the truth got tangled in her sleep-addled mind. But always, his response remained the same.

"We love you so much."

He lifted her up, a fragile porcelain doll he wished to shield from all the pain, all the injustice, all the evils of the world. But how could he save her from herself? How could he tame the beast of her own making?

He began the well-worn journey back to his own bedchambers, where Serenity awaited.

"I let the bad guys into our city."

"We love you so much."

What else could he say? It did her no favors to lie - she was smarter than that. Chibi-Usa did steal the Silver Crystal. She did bring down an entire kingdom.

"I hurt Mamo-chan. I hurt Usagi."

"We love you so much."

"I wanted everyone to hurt. I hated you."

"We love you so much."

She had sinned. Oh, had she sinned. Adam and his apple had nothing on the Princess and her space-time key.

"I didn't want to," she sobbed, keenly. Brokenly.

"I know."

But she had repented. Despite all the odds, the sinkhole-deep fall from grace, Chibi-Usa had come back to them.

He would never let her forget that, and neither would Serenity.

They entered the King and Queen's quarters. It looked like Serenity had prepared for their arrival - a couple lamps were now glowing softly on the lowest setting, the light creating a comforting halo around the bed. As Endymion passed through the antechamber, he gently deposited Chibi-Usa onto her feet. She blinked sleepily up to see Serenity, arms open and eyes warm.

"Come here, my love."

Chibi-Usa released a strangled choke before racing into the refuge of her mother's embrace. Serenity held the girl close and murmured a steady stream of consolation into her ear, which Endymion could just barely discern through the vehemency of Chibi-Usa's cries.

"You're safe now... she's gone... you destroyed her..."

Chibi-Usa mumbled something unintelligible, so muffled was she against the fabric of Serenity's bosom. But apparently the benign monarch understood.

"Sweet girl, no. You are stronger than that. So much stronger. You defeated the darkness and you won."

This went on for a healthy few minutes before Endymion cleared his throat, drawing the attention of his two dearest. Chibi-Usa's somnolent eyes and tear-splattered features turned to greet his, and from above, Serenity's lips quirked into her first real smile of the night. They gazed, one with burgeoning excitement and the other with unbridled amusement, at the object Endymion was now raising on display:

A hairbrush.

A ridiculously bedazzled, gaudy gold-colored hairbrush.

"Shall we attempt braids next?"

Chibi-Usa laughed. Actually laughed. A full fledged, bell tinkling, rib aching laugh, and Endymion felt all the more vindicated for it. It had become a strange sort of tradition for them, starting just a couple weeks ago. There was one night, Chibi-Usa's nightmares had been really bad. She had spent hours, disoriented and barely lucid, unable to stop sobbing into Serenity's lap. Desperate to give his little girl some sort of solace, some form of comforting physical touch, Endymion had grabbed up a brush and begun carding it carefully through the princess' candy pink locks.

It had all spiraled from there.

One night turned into every night. It was like... Chibi-Usa's wind-down time. Her reemergence into reality, eased by the assurance that she was safe, she was loved, she was good. A child, not a vengeance hungry she-monster.

That was how Endymion ended up with his wrists laden in rainbow themed scrunchie ties, doing up Chibi-Usa's odango into a poor mimicry of their usual glory. In his own hair, he sported a ludicrous red bow.

The eight-year-old shrieked giddily, looking at her reflection in the ornate full length mirror, situated across the room. "Papa! You're soooo bad at this!"

"No, I'm not! Just look! I'm a salon stylist in the making!" Endymion exclaimed, gathering up her long tresses into random buns and fixing them into place. Chibi-Usa dissolved into even greater mirth.

"That's even worse!" she squeaked, laboriously in-between bouts of hysterics.

"You just don't know talent when you see it," Endymion clicked his tongue, now tugging at the oblong odango so that wisps of pink stuck out at all angles. He peeked over at Serenity to find her observing the interaction with a charmed expression, and she met his indulging gaze with a knowing glance of her own. He read the slight bat of her eyes as appreciation for his efforts, with maybe just a touch of You're-So-Adorable-I-Can't-Even-Stand-It. He grinned toothily back.

What was a little emasculation, a little chiseling away of his pride, if he was able to make these two women happy? He would gladly suffer any embarrassment just to see the light in their faces when he purposefully played the fool.

Endymion reached over and tugged Serenity to him. He pecked a kiss onto one of her own, much less mussed, odango. "Your turn, dear."

Serenity protested with a yelp and a playful slap. "Oh no, you don't! I am a QUEEN! I will never allow myself to look like THAT!"

"Wanna bet?" Endymion smirked wolfily, and then, he pounced.

oOo

Some time later, Endymion lay - curled up and exhausted - beside the bodies of his wife and their daughter. He chuckled at the disarray they all found themselves in, heads like rat's nests in black, pink, and yellow assortments. He was pretty sure he still boasted the best coif - he had forgotten to take out his bow before they wriggled under the covers, but it made his girls smile, and that was all that mattered. So he left it.

 _If only Crystal Tokyo's subjects could see their 'straight-laced' 'cold fish' King now_ , the man considered, wryly.

Serenity ran gentle, tickling fingers down Chibi-Usa's cheek, and the petite princess stirred from her light doze.

"Small Lady... would you like to begin your training as a Sailor Senshi?"

Chibi-Usa bolted upright, like she'd received a shock. Though Endymion supposed, in a way, she had.

"Really!?"

"Really," Serenity nodded, sitting up too. She patted down a particularly errant patch of hair on Chibi-Usa's fringe. "My darling, you hold a permanent piece of the Silver Crystal inside you now. In time, it will grant you the ability to transform into your very own Senshi. A heralding of the next generation of Sailor Moon."

Serenity regarded Chibi-Usa warmly, as the child listened with rapturous delight. She continued on with a deep breath, and Endymion knew then what would follow. How hard it would be, on both of them. But the future must be preserved as surely as the past, or one very scrupulous Time Guardian was going to descend on them with all the wrath of Hades. "I know... how close you got, with Usagi and Mamoru in the past. I know you miss them. And I think... if you practice very hard with the Senshi here... perhaps it would be beneficial to you if you were permitted to return and better hone your abilities with the Senshi there, too."

Chibi-Usa's ruby red depths filled with tears, and this time, of the joyful variety. It made Endymion's heart sing. She lunged into their arms.

"Oh Mama! Papa! I'd love that! I'd love that  _so much_!"

"Good," Serenity beamed, with only the merest quaver in her voice to hint of the immense pain Endymion knew she must be feeling, at having to willingly and once again, surrender her daughter to the care of others. "Now settle down and sleep, child."

Endymion locked eyes with the benevolent monarch, hoping to absorb some of her sadness and offer up a breadth of his overflowing admiration for her in exchange. He revered that she was selfless enough as to let their only child fly the coop, in order that she may test her wings, unencumbered by the duties of her birthright. It was just the sort of altruism that drew him to her in the first place.  _But oh_ , Endymion sighed inwardly. A year was a long time. A very long time to be without their precious baby bird.

He laid a hand over Serenity's, and one over Chibi-Usa's, watching as she chased the flighty temptress of dreams with a face more relaxed than it had been in months. Serenity's hand twitched - she appeared to have noticed much the same. The royal couple shared a significant look.

Mars once said Chibi-Usa was an amalgam. That she sensed in her the greatest potential for darkness, as much as she did the power of goodness. A power to rival even the Neo-Queen's, she declared, and it was all up to them - their guidance - which path the future Queen Lady would ultimately lead the world down.

Endymion would never admit it aloud, but he liked to blame himself for that bit of shadowy corruptibility living inside his daughter. He had always struggled, struggled where Serenity excelled with effortless grace. She was all light and goodness; he was dark and broody. She had strength of heart and purity of spirit; he was always the easiest to manipulate and the hardest to open up. It only stood to reason that being half Chiba, Chibi-Usa would have inherited as much the worst of him as she did the best of her mother.

But he would never let it consume her like it did him on so many occasions. And he would succeed, he knew. Because she wasn't undertaking this battle alone. She had her parents, her parents who would fight tooth and nail to keep the darkness at bay, even if it meant sleepless nights spent braiding hair and trading bad jokes as entertainment. They were going to weather this as they weathered everything -

Together.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"A Mile In Her (Bare) Feet"_


	17. A Mile In Her (Bare) Feet

Setting: _Fifth_ s _eason (Episode 172)_  
Genre: _Canon_

* * *

They arrived back at Hikawa Shrine through the power of teleportation, and for a few moments, all was cheers and jubilation. Mamoru lingered off to the side as his petite girlfriend was engulfed in a sea of hugs, sniffles, and - in Rei's case - tearful reprimands of, "What the hell were you thinking!?"

He chuckled to himself, but the fleeting suffusion of mirth quickly morphed into something much more solemn as he watched the blonde play act.

She put on a good show, it was true. The other Senshi probably did not even notice the subtle tells. But Mamoru could see very clearly how Usagi was starting to unravel at the edges - the falter in her smile; the stumble in her balance, when Chibi-Usa embraced a little too exuberantly.

She was exhausted.

He waited for the impromptu victory party to lose some of its steam before stepping in.

"We should really get you home, Usako," Mamoru said, solicitously. The aforementioned superheroine nodded wearily. He didn't actually say it, but they both knew to which 'home' he was referring, and the gratitude in Usagi's eyes was almost palpable. They had been gone all night - fielding awkward, interrogatory questions from her family was probably the last thing she wanted to do, right now.

"I want to stay with Hotaru-chan!" Chibi-Usa proclaimed, loudly. Mamoru looked down at his future daughter with a small measure of surprise. Chibi-Usa had been practically glued to Usagi's hip since their return from Nehelenia's castle. He had figured she would want to go wherever Usagi went. But when he scrutinized her just a little bit more closely, he noticed the tightness behind her smile; the light of precognition in her eyes.

 _Wise beyond her years,_  Mamoru thought with fond inflection. She understood that what her parents had been through could only be described as traumatic, and was willing to put aside her own desiderata so that they might find the solace they needed from each other.  _What a kind and selfless girl. Just like her mother._

The man looked to his beloved, who shrugged.

"If Haruka-san, Michiru-san and Setsuna-san will have you, then you have our permission."

Chibi-Usa turned imploringly puppy dog-like eyes on the three Outers. The trio of soldiers hid their poorly contained snickers behind the gloves on their hands.

"The princess is always welcome in our home," Haruka spoke up, the first to recover. She inclined her shaggy blonde head to wink at Usagi. "Both of them."

Chibi-Usa whooped, lunging at Hotaru, who returned the pink-haired child's affections with equal fervency.

"Be good," Usagi entreated, with just the slightest lilt of facetiousness. Chibi-Usa stuck out a teasing tongue, and Mamoru grasped Usagi's arm before the situation devolved into the usual theatrics.

"Home," Mamoru repeated, gently.

"Home," Usagi agreed. Ignoring the Inners' lascivious glances, he wound his arm around the blonde's waist. They were all still bedizened in Senshi garb, so the wings made for tricky maneuvering, but he just... he needed to touch her. Mamoru swept a heavy, heartfelt gaze over the group gathered.

"Thank you. If it weren't for all of you, I would still be... well. You know."

"Zombie boy-toy," Minako supplied, helpfully.

"That," Mamoru snorted, drawing Usagi closer. He didn't miss the minute shiver that raced down her body at that remembrance. "Please call if there's trouble."

He turned to leave with the odango-coiffed sixteen year old, but he was pretty sure he heard Rei mumble offhand "Not bloody likely", followed by Minako's singsong "Have f _uuuuuuu_ n!"

Mamoru led Usagi to the front steps, without releasing his grip. "Such little faith they have in my gentilities!"

"Well," Usagi demurred, as she wrapped her arms securely around his neck, "You  _are_  about to whisk me off to your bedroom, are you not? Why wouldn't they think you're about to have your dastardly way with me?"

"Hush, you," Mamoru growled, with a wolfish sort of smirk. He shifted from Endymion into Tuxedo Kamen, and enveloped Usagi under the midnight colored safety of his cloak. "And hold on tight!"

oOo

He could sense that her strength was flagging the whole trip over, and as they sailed over rooftops Mamoru queried,

"Okay, Usako?"

"Okay," she murmured, almost too quietly to be heard. Her assurance lost most of its weight as they mounted his apartment's balcony, however - for once they scaled the balustrade and he set her onto two feet, the blonde's knees immediately buckled. He caught her as she de-transformed mid-collapse.

" _Usako_!"

The girl appeared slightly dazed as she squinted up at him, a dark crusader framed by early morning sunlight, which only served to highlight just how fragile and battered she looked.

Usagi was dressed in the same clothes she'd sported just before channeling into Eternal Sailor Moon. Mamoru had been across the room at that time, unable to inspect her physical state quite as thoroughly as he was now. What he saw made his blood run cold. She looked  _terrible_. Hair mussed, half falling out of their usual odango. Purple and black bruises crisscrossed her entire body, but worst at the skin of her throat. Clothes tattered. Eyes bloodshot.

She noticed his strangled expression and gazed down at herself.

"I'm a wreck," the sixteen year old lamented, as if that were somehow her fault. Mamoru made a dissonant sound in the back of his throat.

"And I'm rather tired," she sighed, still with that irritatingly unnecessary note of apology.

Mamoru didn't utter a single solitary word - he didn't know  _what_  to say. There was too much going on inside his head. Rage and regret; guilt and grief all swirled into one intangible mass of raw emotion, too potent for him to give voice to. Instead, he reached under and lifted up the boneless Senshi leader, clutching her close to his chest, bridal-style.

It was then that he noticed her feet.

Her swollen, bruised, blood-streaked, half-frostbitten, abused  _bare_  feet.

Mamoru released an anguished noise, more animal than it was human, and he darted swiftly across the threshold into the inner sanctum of his apartment, straight over to the bed. There, he positioned Usagi as gently as possible against the pillows before making a quick segue into the kitchen. He was barely gone more than a minute, and when he returned, it was with a bowl of lukewarm water in hand. Silently, still overcome, the man shifted back into his civilian form and knelt down next to the bed. Usagi watched through half-lidded eyes as he began to carefully tend to her feet. Quiescence reigned until Usagi broke the spell with a sharp admonition.

"Stop it."

"Stop it?" Mamoru asked, confusedly pausing in his ministrations. He let the wet rag he was using fall limply to the side.

"Yes. Stop it," Usagi repeated, and she leveled a fierce glare at him. Mamoru felt very wrong-footed all of a sudden, but as always, his Usako possessed the uncanny ability to see right through him. "You're blaming yourself and I want you to stop."

He sighed, rubbing at the aching synapses of his forehead.

"I'm not sure how I couldn't, Usako. It  _was_  my fault." Mamoru gestured at the pitiful state of her feet. "You're like this because of me. Because I was an easy target and you had to come rescue me. O _nce again_."

"And I'd do it a million times over," Usagi insisted, with the same ferocity as before. She folded her arms across her chest. "You didn't kidnap yourself. You didn't force me to brave miles of frozen wasteland or crawl through a football field's worth thicket of thorns.  _Nehelenia_  did. Nehelenia stole you to get revenge on me, and so it is Nehelenia on whom we should place blame."

Mamoru hung his head, his heart constricting with every new detail of Usagi's tribulations. He reached out and began mindlessly petting the only marginally less maltreated dorsals of her feet.

"You are too good for me," he bemoaned, huskily. The ebony-haired man then gently, very gently, lifted her foot to his lips, and planted there a most exceedingly tender kiss. "And I wish one day you would quit putting yourself in danger on my behalf."

"Never," Usagi declared, waggishly. She leaned forward and poked him hard in the ribs. "Though you might have raised a good point. My job  _would_  be easier if you didn't end up as bait so freaking many times!"

Mamoru lightened at the teasing tone of her voice, and he scowled just as playfully back. "Hey. It's a character flaw! I can't help it!"

Usagi dissolved into a flurry of giggles. The nineteen year old relished in the sound of her mirth - the proof that she was here, she was alive, she was whole. It was a blessing he would not take for granted again.

With the mood salvaged, Usagi relaxed back into the pillows of Mamoru's bed. She gave a great yawn and blinked sleepily up at him. "Oh God, I really am so tired. Would you mind terribly if I napped for a bit?"

Mamoru opened his mouth to reply, only to be cut short by a raucous snore. He chuckled, shutting his jaw; shaking his head.  _Oh, Usako_. He let his fingers trace delicate patterns down the somnolent features of her face, wishing he had the powers of Pluto at his disposal, so that he might freeze and capture this moment for all of eternity. He hated the fact that his transfer to America still loomed over them; a shapeless and ambient fiend she still didn't even know existed. He would have to tell her soon; he would have to break her heart one last time before they could finally achieve that unparalleled state of pure love-filled bliss. But perhaps... perhaps he could do something in the interim. Something to make their separation a little less daunting and a lot more transitory.  _Meaningful_.

Mamoru smiled, a light overtaking his oft maudlin visage, so radiant it was almost blinding.

Any sane person would go out and buy a drink after the day he had. A round of drinks, probably.

Instead, he went out and bought a ring.

* * *

Next Chapter: _"In Flagrante Delicto"_


	18. In Flagrante Delicto

Setting: _Silver Millennium_  
Genre: _AU_

* * *

The cold, sharp tip of what she immediately identified as a metal sword pressed into the small of her back, so suddenly she let out an undignified squeak. The voice that followed was deep in tone, with a steely edge much befitting the weapon this mysterious man wielded.

"Well, well, well. Tabitha warned me a strange cloaked figure had been spotted sneaking about the palace gardens - thinking of making off with our roses?"

Princess Serenity swore from beneath her heavy black hood, squeezing the offending item tighter in her red-handed grip, but she refused to give the delicate flower over. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her entire life, the prize of her illicit little adventure, and she wasn't about to surrender her newfound treasure that easily.

"What is your name?" the man demanded forcefully.

Serenity hesitated, unsure if revealing herself as the crown princess of the Moon Kingdom was a wise call, especially in this situation. But she was young still, and impetuous, so when the man said again, "Your name, thief", she snapped back with,

"That's none of your business."

Her accoster seemed to bristle, then the blade dug ever more harshly into the pliant skin of her back. Serenity winced.

"Oh, isn't it? I'm not sure if you're aware to whom you are speaking, then. I am Prince Endymion of the Terran Kingdom, and this is  _my_  home you're stealing from, you insolent commoner!"

It was Serenity's turn to take affront. There was veracity in what Mother always said - pride was indeed one's greatest folly.

"I am no commoner!" she cried, repugnant.

Prince Endymion guffawed. "Ah yes. Because all highborn ladies take to skulking the grounds incognito, to filch from the hands that feed them. If you truly were who you say, you would know this section is strictly forbidden to all but the royal family. Now come on-" he jabbed the sword ever so slightly and Serenity stumbled forward- "It's off to the stockade with you!"

Serenity's heart struck up a resounding staccato beat, and she began to move in the direction of his prompting. But, she had no intention of allowing herself to be locked up in some filthy, overcrowded prison to live out her days a nameless, reeking waif. Oh no. Because Mother had also taught her self-preservation, and she was damned if she wasn't about to go out without using every defense available to her.

The thrifty princess made like she had tripped over a root, but when she reached out for the tree to 'steady' herself, she actually was grasping for a branch. Within seconds, she had snapped it, fearlessly turning her makeshift weapon onto her princely companion. Endymion's eyes registered startled surprise and perhaps - grudgingly - some measure of respect.

"I may not have known the area I was in was off-limits. But. I do know a thing or two about fencing, and I am not going  _anywhere_  without a fight," Serenity said fiercely. And, a bit out of breath, because she had just realized how thoroughly and utterly  _attractive_  her opponent was, with his chiseled Adonis features and unkempt ebony hair that hung over darkly intrigued eyes. The armor attire was simply icing on the cake.

Endymion noticed the picture perfect stance Serenity invoked. Clearly, she had had a lot of practice. He narrowed his eyes.

"Maybe you aren't a commoner," he admitted. "Irregardless, I cannot let the crimes of trespassing and thievery go without impugn. So. How about we make a bargain?"

Serenity was interested. She was interested in anything that might let her walk out of this unbridled mess with life and legacy still intact. "Go on."

"You see, I too have been trained - extensively - in the noble art of fencing," he said, and to Serenity's immense delight, he proceeded to sheath the sword and wander over to the nearest tree, where he popped off a branch of similar size and strength. Endymion gazed closely at Serenity as he let aimless fingers trail over the many swirls and knobs of the thickly gnarled wood. "So I propose... a duel."

He raised his stick so that it was pointed menacingly at Serenity.

"I win, and it's the pillory for you. You win, and I let you go. No questions asked."

Serenity smirked from beneath the folds of her hood, glad it hid the slip from Endymion. He might have a prowess with the sword. But she had been doing this her entire life, and, she had an advantage - she was small, but lithe. Speed was on her side; nimbleness her upper hand. Just let him try to out-maneuver her in his clunky metal armor!

She mimicked his starting pose, confidence fairly oozing from her pores. "Deal."

"Then en garde," he shrugged, with deceptively lazy aplomb. The energy, enthusiasm and focus he put into his initial attack, however, was far from that.

They began to clink sticks, feet working themselves into a frenzied flurry as they darted and parried; side-stepped and lunged. Sweat licked the sides of Serenity's brow but she ignored it, focused solely on the assaults she both leveled and blocked. Their fencing became like a dance; a strangely symbiotic entanglement. They moved almost in unison, like two halves of a whole, and Serenity had to admit - she was unduly impressed with the skill of her aggressor, and she was quite certain he was of her, too. She also noticed that Endymion was not, as she previously assumed, hindered by his hefty outerwear in the slightest.

 _You know..._ she thought, with a dash of wry humor.  _If_   _it weren't for the fact that he was trying to arrest her, he would make for one marvelous future sparring partner!_

Serenity glanced up as she countered a stab at her lower septime, just in time to catch Endymion staring oddly at her.

"Are you... laughing?" he queried, and Serenity could tell, she had thrown off his composure.

"Maybe," she replied, slyly. "I was just wondering... ( _she grunted in exertion_ ) how will we know... ( _she jumped and dodged with amble dexterity_ ) who wins?"

"I suppose..." Endymion paused, panting heavily, and in that moment, Serenity found herself distracted by the sight of his eyes boring into her own - the heady pools of blue like sizzling embers, mesmerizing in their intensity. "The winner is the one..."

She hardly realized she was being backed into a tree as he advanced, successfully trapping her body and her fencing stick with his own.

"...who subjugates the other first."

Serenity swallowed, throat going dry even as her heartbeat sped up to inordinate degrees. There was something about the way he said it -  _subjugate the other_  - that, for reasons unknown, sent a shiver of pleasure down the blonde princess' spine. She stiffened when Endymion leaned forward.

"Tell me who you are," the man insisted, trying to peer beneath the awning of her hood. He seemed to have all but forgotten about the duel, having set himself a new mission, but she was a valiant foe no matter what the battle.

"No," Serenity said, perniciously. She tried to wiggle out of the nearly nonexistent gap left between them, but it was a half-hearted effort. His eyes had snared her, and too much of her body begged to stay; to obey.

Endymion growled, but it was not a noise of anger. Rather, a carnal frustration.  _So he felt it too._

"You would deny a prince?"

She wasn't positive anymore to what he was referring, so she kept her answer just as vague.

"I am beholden to no one," Serenity announced, and there was that fatal pride again. As much as she ached to give in, she knew - he was an enigma to her, a potential danger. She could not - should not - play with fire, when the cost of an indiscretion was poised to ripple across her entire kingdom. She was not blind to the enmity that festered between the lunarians and the earthlings. Even if the power of this man called out to her like the fabled sirens on the sea...

Something in her fiery response must have convinced Endymion of the fortitude she possessed, for he acceded with a sigh,

"You have stubbornness, I'll give you that. A boundless will to survive. Even if insulting a prince is a peculiar way of going about it."

"I mean no disrespect," Serenity mumbled, and Endymion allowed himself a dumbfounded chuckle as he slowly lowered his arms from their combative positioning upon Serenity.

"Somehow... I believe you."

He regarded her for a long time, expression unreadable. She continued to remain under the power of his gaze, but her limbs felt twitchy, like that of a caged rabbit. Endymion must have sensed her overwhelming desire to run, for he spoke at last,

"Go. I release you. You have proven yourself a worthy adversary, and..." His eyes softened, so that Serenity felt like she was being treated to a different, more genuine side of this intoxicatingly inscrutable prince. "I confess myself impressed. I can hardly sentence you to what would be inevitable death now."

Serenity blinked. She was... free?

The woman began to shift nervously away from her captor with his unexpectedly generous change of heart, her backward steps tentative - like at any moment, he might choose to revoke his gift. But Endymion didn't so much as move a muscle, not until Serenity paused beside the tree she had first snagged her branch from.

"Wait - please - couldn't I at least see your face? Just once?"

Endymion's voice held an abject sort of desperation. Serenity turned slowly, considering. Where was the harm in it? She may never see this man again (though the 'never' part did funny, unpleasant things to her stomach). She reached up and pushed her hood back, revealing her kind, genteel features and the assortment of fine jewelry bedizened upon her neck, ears, and odango.

Endymion gasped, his own countenance stricken with a most ungainly look of shock, out of place on the normally reserved prince.

"You're... you're... You were telling the truth!" he spluttered, and Serenity quirked a cheshire grin. His eyes danced over her face, taking in everything - including the faint insignia of a crescent moon, etched upon her forehead. He closed his gaping mouth, swallowing loudly. "You're one of them?"

He whispered it like disappointment, and Serenity cocked her head in askance.

"And why should that matter?"

"It's just... my mother and father always said... Lunarians were a race of monsters. Bloodthirsty and ruthless; as far from human as you can get."

"Do I look like a monster to you?" Serenity asked, with a definite amusement underlying her query.

"Not in the slightest," Endymion murmured, and there was a curious glint in his eyes Serenity struggled to decipher. It might have been the dawning of understanding, or maybe - just maybe - the light of appreciative admiration. Serenity blushed, smiling. She averted her gaze bashfully when his own started to become too much.

"Oh." The moon princess bent over, retrieving her fallen flower from where she had dropped it by the base of the tree. "Here. I guess this is yours? I'm sorry - I shouldn't have stolen from you. It was terribly wrong of me. I just... had never seen anything so beautiful before. We don't have many varieties of plant life on the moon."

When she peeked up, she was surprised to discover Endymion had closed the distance between them. He was still watching her like a man converted, observing her every action (however minute) with an enchanted sort of wonderment. It was disconcerting... and thrilling.

"Keep it," he said, gently. It was Endymion's turn to smile, and Serenity reveled in the boyish charm it gave his visage. She sucked in a breath when he picked up her hand, the one with the rose, and raised it to his lips. "A token of gratitude, and my humble offering of apology. You have given me much to think on, m'lady."

Serenity's heart went haywire when he kissed the back of her hand. She had to remind herself,  _breathe_.

Endymion straightened, releasing the blonde's hand with visible reluctance. Then he shed his regal facade, proving he was equally as capable of entertaining a humorous edge. "Next time... maybe just ask?"

Serenity laughed, her mirth rich, like tinkling bells. Then she slipped away, cloak billowing out behind her as she made her escape, knowing with every fibre of her being that he was still staring upon her retreating figure.

 _Next time_... she rather liked the sound of that. Perhaps she  _would_  see this Prince Endymion again. She had the oddest feeling that fate was trying to tell her something.

"Serenity!" she called, over her right shoulder.

"What?" Endymion shouted.

"My name. It's Serenity!"

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Sweet Silver Bells"_


	19. Sweet Silver Bells

Setting: _Season 3_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

Mamoru growled in frustration, pounding the 'backspace' button on his computer so many times he was sure he had left a permanent indent. He watched as the third failed attempt at a midterm thesis disappeared into the ether, until only a glowing blank page remained - most definitely mocking him, and his complete inability to form a single cogent thought, let alone a persuasive argument on the dangers of xenohormones in prepubescent adolescents. Mamoru shoved his reams of research off to the side, so that he could more easily bang his forehead upon the desk. Numerous times. Hard. It was probably a stupid idea, given how much head trauma he had amassed over the years, but at the moment, the very stressed first-year university student didn't care. There was after all, something to be said for taking one's frustrations out onto inanimate objects.

"Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells..."

Mamoru's ears perked up. He lifted his face off the desk, just a little bit, listening to the telltale sound of singing wafting from the hallway beyond. He smiled at how off-key it was.

"All seem to say, throw cares away!"

A key jiggled inside his lock, and Mamoru sat fully up. He watched as his apartment door was thrown wide open, with such exuberance it bounced off the wall. He could hardly get exasperated however, when the source of all the ruckus bounded in with such merriment that he swore she brought the spirit of the holiday in with her.

" _Christmas_  is here,  _bringing_  good cheer! Oh wait... that's me!" Usagi flung up her arms and dissolved into a raucous bout of giggles. Mamoru had to marvel at the sight she made, dressed in the ugliest, most garish green and red Christmas sweater he'd ever seen. On her head, in-between the two odango, were makeshift reindeer antlers, quite probably by her own hand. Mamoru's smile stretched even further. There was no doubt about it - she was positively adorable!

The pre-med laid down his work and opened his arms to the festively adorned blonde.

"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes! But what are doing here, Usako? I thought you were going to spend your afternoon at the arcade with Chibi-Usa?"

Usagi flew into his embrace with all the speed of a freight train, nuzzling deep. Mamoru chuckled when her antlers tickled at his chin.

"I was, but then I figured, you were probably sad and lonely here all by yourself, and with it being only two days before Christmas... I thought you might need cheering up! Well... and the brat cancelled on me to go last minute gift shopping with Minako-chan."

"That's very sweet of you, Usako. But I'm okay. I was doing my midterm thesis."

"You were writing a paper? Writing a paper on Christmas Eve Eve!? Mamo-chan..." Usagi looked aghast. Appalled. Outraged. Mamoru blinked at her sudden shift.

"What?"

"You're on vacation!  _Christmas vacation_! You're not supposed to do schoolwork on Christmas vacation!"

In her fanaticism, Usagi leapt up to her full height, looming over Mamoru with hands on either hip. Add in the horns, and it was actually a rather daunting sight.

"The thesis is due when I get back from break. What  _else_  am I supposed to do?"

"What else are you supposed to do," Usagi scoffed, nailing him with a most withering expression of dismay. "That's a silly question, Mamo-chan. You're  _supposed_  to trim a tree. Hang holly. Wrap presents. Sing carols. Spread joy. You know - Christmasy things! Haven't you ever done the traditional Christmas things?"

Mamoru blinked, a bit taken aback by the question. Then Usagi blinked as well, and in that instant, a light dawned in her brilliant blue eyes, and they seemed to grow exorbitantly softer. She crouched down and touched Mamoru's knee, still gazing at him like she could see straight into his soul, and maybe she was. She always had that uncanny knack of knowing what he needed, without him ever saying a word.

"Oh Mamo-chan," she whispered, "You didn't... did you?"

Mamoru shrugged, feeling himself flush uncomfortably. He didn't usually like to talk about those dark days, but he was learning to let Usagi into his life, and that included sharing with her the less savory details of his past. "I mean... it wasn't that we didn't. They still put up a tree for us at the orphanage. And we all got a present or two from donations to charities - Toys for Tots and such. But it wasn't... it wasn't anything  _special_. There wasn't any magic to the holiday, like for our adopted counterparts. And even once I left, I guess I never... I never quite connected with Christmas. It was usually just a depressing reminder that I didn't have a family to celebrate with."

Usagi's eyes filled with tears, and Mamoru felt a knot burgeon in his own throat in response. He put his hand over Usagi's.

"Don't cry, Usako. It's not like that now."

"I know," Usagi sniffled. "But I still hate picturing you like that! I wish so much that I could have been there for you. So you weren't alone."

"I'm not now, and that's all that matters," Mamoru declared, and he ran the rough pad of his thumb over the back of Usagi's hand as he held it. The bun-headed fifteen-year-old nodded vigorously.

"No, you're not. You're  _my_  family now," she said, firmly, glomping onto his leg as if to claim possession. Mamoru smirked. "And as an honorary Tsukino, you should be forewarned, we go  _all_  out in our celebration of Christmas!"

"So I see," Mamoru quipped, glancing at her antlers again with an affectionate amusement gracing his countenance.

"Yep. It's like that song - 'throw cares away'. So you know what you're gonna do? You're gonna close your laptop, at least for today. You're gonna help me decorate the apartment, so it's not so bland and drab. And then you're gonna help me bake Christmas cookies, because God knows I can't make a decent batch by myself!"

"In that order?" Mamoru asked, with a sardonic cock of his brow. "Or are you neglecting to mention that the third activity actually comes first?"

Usagi threw her hand over her head and giggled sheepishly. "Ehehe. Okay... you got me there. I'm starving!"

Mamoru rolled his eyes, still with the same overwhelming love for his energetic little Christmas elf swelling in his heart. He observed as she went riffling around in her pockets, thinking she was about to fish out a snack. Instead, she pulled out a rumpled green sprig, and it took him a moment to recognize the significance as she dangled the fresh plant right over her head.

"Hey, isn't that funny," she teased, gazing up at her paramour with sparkling azures. "I appear to have discovered mistletoe, which may or may not have been accidentally nicked from my Mama's stores."

"Accidentally, huh?" Mamoru breathed, beginning to slowly lean in toward Usagi's devilish features.

"Purely accidental," Usagi assured. "No idea how it got into my pocket."

"Santa puts liars on the naughty list, you know," Mamoru leered, now just inches away from Usagi's luscious red lips. She was becoming adorably cross-eyed as she stared longingly at his own.

"Fine. I 'fess up. It was me! Please don't let St. Nick put me on the naughty list!"

"You could never," Mamoru promised, finally diving down and sealing their lips as one. Usagi melted boneless into his kiss, dropping the mistletoe completely as she draped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him in closer. When at last they parted, pink-cheeked and gasping for air, Usagi told him sweetly,

"Happy first Christmas, Mamo-chan."

"Happy first Christmas, Usako."

* * *

Next Chapter: _"Beginnings and Ends"_


	20. Beginnings and Ends

Setting: _Future, pre-Crystal Tokyo_  
Genre: _Any_

* * *

Mamoru suffered a brief moment of panic when his hand reached out and met only cool night air, followed by the slight indented feel of a mattress recently vacated. But then his eyes adjusted, and he saw her, an ethereal goddess glowing under coruscating moonlight. She was bent over the marble balcony, cheeks in her palms, back to him, gazing out over the breathtaking waters that were "as far from Japan as possible", per her request. The sight of his golden haired paramour - brilliant under her mother deity, clad in nary but a sheer floral chemise - brought a wide, sinfully cheeky smile to Mamoru's face.

He slipped out of bed like a lion on the hunt. Once, he might have been embarrassed at the state of indecency he currently entertained, so exposed was he to the world. But Mamoru felt no shame - over time his world had shrunk until it encapsulated only one person, and between them, there were no secrets. Not anymore.

He slunk behind her quietly introspecting figure, and slowly, carefully - so as not to scare her - eased his hands around the small but lithe body.

"How are you liking your private island paradise, my Chiba Usako?" Mamoru purred beside the woman's earlobe, accentuating the sultry query with a naughty nip against the pliant skin. Usagi shivered delightfully.

"Chiba Usako... I don't think I'll ever tire of hearing that," she said, breathless at the very name. Mamoru quite agreed. He pressed closer to her, and rested his chin atop the sharp protrusion of her shoulder blade. The moon was full in the sky, emanating light every which way across the gently rippling ocean waters, so that it too looked to be reflecting sparkles back up at the giant orb. The dazzling display this created served to give the surrounding area a most unearthly quality, and Mamoru knew - they could have picked no better place than this to spend their honeymoon.

"So beautiful. It almost reminds me of the Silver Millennium," Usagi whispered, reverently. "Do you remember our very first kiss?"

"Here, or there?" Mamoru chuckled, with wry humor. There were so many possible 'firsts' when it came to them - that's what happened when you were reincarnated beings with an amalgam of memories!

Usagi head-butted him from the side. "There, silly."

"First of the first, huh?" Mamoru breathed in a heady gulp of the salty sea air. "As I recall... it was a night much like this one. We had taken a rowboat ride under cover of darkness - still trying to keep our rendezvous a secret from our quarreling families. And just like tonight, the moon was out, shining down... spilling all over you... and I thought, she's the most beautiful creature I've ever seen in all the lands. How did I get so lucky as to meet  _her_? I was drunk off my love. I wanted to impress you, so much, so I showed you my special power-"

Mamoru stuck out his index, and from there spiraled up the most perfect rose, fairly glittering from feather-soft petal to razor-sharp stem under the gentle coaxing of his Golden Crystal-fueled magic. It was the same as the ones he conjured during battle; an endless supply of weaponry - or tokens of affection - forever at his fingertips.  _Very useful during moments such as these_ , Mamoru mused, as he tenderly held the flower before his new wife's countenance. She squealed with pleasure, reaching up for the proffered bloom.

"And after you had accepted my gift, I swooped in-"

Mamoru whirled Usagi around, so that they were face-to-face.

"Moved the flower to behind your ear-"

Usagi beamed as he plucked the rose from out of her grip, and transferred it to the same location as that in the story. His fingers trailed a fiery pattern downward, to the skin of her nape. He pulled the woman forward.

"And kissed you until all senses fell away, and we were the only two people left on this earth," Mamoru murmured, capturing Usagi's lips between his own. She hummed contentedly into his mouth, deepening their connection even as the rest of her seemed to go boneless. They pulled away only when their lungs began to protest at the lack of oxygen. Mamoru could see that Usagi was having trouble recovering, a comically glazed-over look in her endless azures. He nuzzled her adorable button of a nose, and she blinked a couple times to clear the mental fog.

"Funny how it still feels the same way, every time," she commented. Then a coy gleam entered her eyes, as she flicked them appreciatively downward. "Except when it's better."

Mamoru groaned wantonly, so wanting to drag her back between the sheets of their marriage bed as he caressed the sides of her cheeks. But, he could also tell that something was keeping her rooted to the balcony; the same thing that had drawn her away in the first place. His expression became more serious. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Usagi blushed like she'd been caught. A delicate breeze wafted through, lifting her odango into the current.  _So devastatingly beautiful_ , Mamoru reflected once more, marveling that this fact never seemed to fail to send his heart into tailspins.

"You were thinking out here so loudly, I swear that's what woke me up!" the man joked, and it earned him a snicker. He was pleased to see Usagi relaxing, and she leaned into his easy embrace, holding on tightly for a moment before answering.

"It's just..." she said slowly, raising her hand so that the brand new wedding band on her left fourth finger glinted luminously off the moonlight. "Well... it's a beginning and an end, this... isn't it?"

Her visage was a strange arrangement of joy and excitement; wistfulness and sorrow. Mamoru tilted his head like a curious puppy would as he voiced his concurrence.

"I suppose it is. Is that a bad thing?"

Usagi guffawed, and she peered up at him from her vantage beside his chest, so that he could find the proof of her immense happiness shimmering heavy in her sparkling blue eyes. Mamoru thought then that he would gladly drown in those fathomless depths; her tears the purest form of her love.

"Are you kidding me? All I ever wanted was to be a bride.  _Your_  bride. And now..." Usagi took a deep breath, and Mamoru saw her cradle her ring hand close. "Now I'm here, on the day I always dreamed about, and I feel like I need to pinch myself because I can scarcely believe it's  _real_. I'm married to my Mamo-chan. You're my  _husband_  and I'm your wife. A  _wife_!"

Usagi laughed in amazement and Mamoru knew he was savoring the word just as much as she. It was crazy to consider this would now be a common term in his daily lexicon.

"So I guess... if this is to be the end of my life as Tsukino Usagi... it's the only end I want to be at," Usagi nodded to herself, in a tone of satisfied finality. Mamoru smiled, fully understanding the dichotomy of feelings she was experiencing. It  _was_  an end - of quiet coffee mornings, neatly folded laundry and uninterrupted books in the evenings. In some ways it would be hard to say goodbye to his old bachelor lifestyle. There was comfort in familiarity. But on the flip side, that existence had been a mostly lonely one. When Usagi would burst into his apartment, spreading noise, cheer and often a helter-skelter mess in her wake, it was like Mamoru came alive again. Like finally seeing sunshine again after a long, dark, biting winter. He couldn't imagine his life without her.

And now, he would never have to.

"Come, my wife. There's something I want to show you in the bedroom..."

Usagi's peals of mirth echoed far into the night.

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**_FIN_ **


End file.
